UN official warns Hormuz fertilizer plan must be agreed within weeks to avoid food crisis

Right · 2A UN official overseeing a proposed scheme to move fertilizer through the Strait of Hormuz said on Wednesday 14 October that a failure by the United States and Iran to agree on it within weeks could cause a food security crisis in parts of Asia and Africa. 1 2 Right · 1The United Nations set up a taskforce in March to facilitate fertilizer passage through the strait but has yet to implement the mechanism it drew up; Under-Secretary-General Jorge Moreira da Silva said it could be activated within 7-10 days of an agreement between Washington and Tehran. 1 Right · 2Speaking in an interview in Bangkok on the sidelines of the IMF and World Bank annual meetings, he said: "It's absolutely crucial to get the deal in the next few weeks. Otherwise, we will miss the planting season." 1 2

Right · 1He warned that missing that season would significantly cut agricultural productivity and push up prices. 1 Right · 2Under the proposal, a coordination centre in Oman would register vessels and coordinate safe passage, with UN monitors working alongside local authorities at Gulf ports to verify cargo loading. Ships would be tracked in transit, and extra inspections could be carried out if countries raised concerns about a vessel or cargo. 1 2 Right · 1Moreira da Silva said that passage of only five vessels a day could keep fertilizer flowing to countries in critical need. 1

Right · 2He said the mechanism could run alongside talks on a comprehensive deal on lasting peace and freedom of navigation, and declined to specify the exact bottlenecks to an agreement. 1 2 Right · 1The White House, the US State Department and Iran's Embassy in Bangkok did not immediately reply to requests for comment. 1 Right · 2Iran has sought to tighten its grip on the strait since US and Israeli strikes on 28 February, using it to pressure Washington, which has maintained its own naval blockade of Iranian ports. Iran and the US have exchanged proposals through intermediaries since a June interim ceasefire collapsed, but efforts to reopen the strait have stalled over Tehran's conditions and Washington's insistence on addressing Iran's nuclear programme from the outset. 1 2

Right · 1Before the war the waterway handled roughly a third of globally traded urea and nearly half of seaborne sulphur, and it is also a major conduit for oil. The Washington-based International Food Policy Research Institute said last month that fertilizer shipments out of the Gulf remained largely halted more than six months into the conflict, and that fertilizer was a "very negligible" share of the shipping that resumed during the mid-June to mid-July ceasefire. 1 Right · 1An August International Chamber of Commerce report said continued Hormuz disruption could raise commodity prices by up to 81% for cereals, 66% for oil crops and 30% for animal products. 1 Right · 2Moreira da Silva said food security is also threatened by attacks on cargo vessels in the Black Sea region and an offensive by Iran-backed Houthi militants along a key Red Sea shipping route, calling it "a concentration of factors" including the climate crisis. 1 2

Left · 1Al Jazeera added that in May the UN's Food and Agriculture Organization warned fertiliser scarcity could tighten food supplies from late 2026 into 2027 and hit countries facing climate or other crises hardest, that South Asian farmers who rely on imported fertiliser are already struggling with soaring costs, and that farmers in Spain protested on Wednesday over rising production costs amid high oil and fertiliser prices. 3 Left · 1Al Jazeera also reported that Moreira da Silva did not say why the US and Iran have not yet agreed, and quoted him as saying the UN's message to both sides is: "while you continue your discussions towards a comprehensive deal, let us work, let us do our job." 3