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→Economy
==Economy==
==Economy==
===Urea and ammonia===
The Persian Gulf is not just an [[energy]] hub. It is one of the [[planet]]'s great fertilizer factories, and the [[Strait of Hormuz]] is how those fertilizers reach the fields that depend on them. The [[Middle East]] supplies close to a quarter of global [[urea]] exports; by some measures roughly a third of world seaborne [[fertilizer]] [[trade]] was put at risk when the [[US]]/[[Israel]] attack on [[Iran]] closed the Strait of Hormuz. Iran halted [[ammonia]] production; [[Qatar]] suspended urea, ammonia, and [[sulphur]] output after the [[Ras Laffan]] damage.
The price response was violent. Urea climbed above $850 per metric ton in April 2026 — up around 80% from February and the highest level since 2022. World urea prices roughly doubled at the peak. Ammonia jumped nearly 40% in weeks, and about 24% of all global ammonia trade normally passes through Hormuz. Fitch raised its 2026 ammonia and urea forecasts by around a quarter and warned [[nitrogen]] fertilizers would be the hardest hit of any product category.
And unlike a price chart, the downstream damage compounded. [[India]] — which sources roughly 80% of its ammonia from the Persian Gulf — saw ammonia-based [[domestic]] production stall and lost hundreds of thousands of tons of monthly urea output as industrial gas was rationed. [[American]] [[farmer]]s absorbed the shock at the worst possible moment, entering spring planting with fertilizer costs spiking and [[diesel]] above $5 a gallon. Because [[natural gas]] is around 80% of the cost of nitrogen fertilizer, the [[LNG]] disruption and the fertilizer disruption feed each other — a second-order effect. When fertilizer gets scarce and expensive, the eventual bill is measured in crop yields and [[food]] prices.
[[Category:Gulfs]]
[[Category:Gulfs]]