WOOFORD COUNTY, Ky. (LEX 18) — Kentucky farmers are bracing for a difficult growing season as conflict in the Middle East threatens to drive up fertilizer costs and squeeze already-thin profit margins.
The conflict with Iran has brought shipping traffic in the Strait of Hormuz to a halt. According to the American Farm Bureau Federation, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and Iran together make up 25% of the world's nitrogen fertilizer exports. The stalled shipments of key fertilizer ingredients are expected to drive demand, and prices, higher.
Brian Conlon, a member of the Fayette County Farm Bureau Board of Directors, said the situation is another obstacle Kentucky's agricultural community will have to overcome.
"It's frustrating," Conlon said. "Talking about a class of individuals that needs win and that's failed to happen in a long time."
Conlon, who has been around agriculture his entire life, described the industry in personal terms.
"It's a very passionate and giving industry," Conlon said.
Robert Cleveland, owner of Woodford Feed, has been with the company since 1968 and has built deep connections with the farming community. Cleveland said the market has effectively frozen as buyers wait to see how the situation develops.
"Today, yesterday, and probably tomorrow you can't buy a truck load, car load, a barge load, the market is very much wait and see," Cleveland said.
Cleveland said he is less concerned about his relationships with farmers than he is about what rising costs could mean for their livelihoods.
"We got a good relationship with our farmers. I'm not worry about them if they can't pay me, but I'm worried about if this is going to cost too much where they can't make money," Cleveland said.
Cleveland warned that if prices climb too high, the consequences could extend beyond the farm.
"As prices go up and farmers get squeezed. They quit producing," Cleveland said.
