Africa must build its own fertiliser security systems

When cargo traffic slowed through the Strait of Hormuz this year, the cost of feeding continents moved with it. The corridor carries roughly a third of the world’s urea and nitrogen-based fertilisers.

Within a week, urea prices in the Middle East climbed 19 percent. Across Africa, where food already absorbs about half of household spending, the arithmetic was brutal: urea prices doubled from $400 to $850 per tonne, triggering a sharp rise in food prices.