Bare fruit and vegetable shelves in supermarkets this month have brought the global food supply chain into sharp focus, as droughts in North Africa and tougher growing conditions in Europe cut what is available to UK consumers.
At the same time, Anglo American (AAL) will reportedly announce its updated plan for the former Sirius Minerals mine in North Yorkshire this week. Fertiliser mine developers pitch investors with the idea that their products will boost crops and see continued demand growth purely through the world's population rising.
The fertiliser market is still being reconfigured a year on from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. There are two reasons for this: Russia and Belarus are significant exporters of fertilisers, while soaring gas prices were passed through into urea and ammonium nitrate prices, which are key fertiliser inputs.