MONTICELLO, Iowa (KCRG) – Iowa farmers fear the Russia-Ukraine conflict will impact the upcoming growing season.
“War is never a good thing,” said Farmer, Jim Grief.
Grief worries about the conflict overseas not only impacting agriculture in the U.S., but globally. Much like commodity markets, Grief says he saw the fertilizer prices react to the invasions.
“Russia sells a lot of fertilizer to other countries,” said Grief.
Russia is one of the world’s largest exporters of fertilizer. Most of the fertilizer in the U.S. does not come from Russia, but as actions on the country continue to roll out other farmers could look to the U.S. supply.
“If they’re out of the market, everybody’s going to be going to the suppliers that we’ve had, so it’s going to double down on us,” said Grief. “I’m not in favor of what Russia is doing over there. But any sanctions on Russia are going to come back to bite the American consumer and farmer,”.
Agricultural economists also worry about the fertilizer industry and the impacts of the conflict in Ukraine.
“The biggest one I’m worried about is fertilizer. We’ve seen in you’ve probably talked to farmers that were fertilizer prices are very high right now,” said Chad Hart, Economics Professor at Iowa State University. “It’s because we’ve seen a bunch of things hit that market,”.
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Iowa farmer explains impact Russia-Ukraine conflict on farming – KCRG
