Saturday, April 9, 2022

IN the NEWS - "We have never seen anything like this before"

So will this Crises end up being just another Crises Era on the pages of  History like those before--which will eventually end---OR----is this the Final one?
Men's hearts failing them for fear, and for looking after those things which are coming on the earth... Luke 21:26


"Unfortunately for all of us, it appears that a lack of fertilizer will mean that far less food is grown in 2022 than originally anticipated.
Thanks to an unprecedented explosion in energy prices, 
we were already facing a fertilizer crisis even before the war in Ukraine, but now that war has definitely taken things to the next level.
Under normal conditions, a great deal of the world’s fertilizer comes from either Russia, Belarus or Ukraine…
A fertilizer shortage has added to growing concerns about
the Ukraine war’s impact on the price and scarcity of certain basic foods.
Combined, Russia and Belarus had provided about 40% of the world’s exports of potash, according to Morgan Stanley. Russia’s exports were hit by sanctions. Further, in February, a major Belarus producer declared force majeure — a statement that it wouldn’t be able to uphold its contracts due to forces beyond its control.
Russia also exported 11% of the world’s urea, and 48% of the ammonium nitrate. Russia and Ukraine together export 28% of fertilizers made from nitrogen and phosphorous, as well as potassium, according to Morgan Stanley.
Global hunger rose significantly in both 2020 and 2021, but what we are going to be dealing with in the months ahead is going to be completely unlike anything that we have dealt with in the past.
In fact, one commodity expert that was interviewed by CNBC is extremely pessimistic about what is ahead…
In Peru, fertilizer prices have experienced an “almost fourfold” increase…
The global fertilizer squeeze exacerbated by Russia’s
invasion of Ukraine is imperiling rice production in Peru, where the seed is a staple for tens of millions of people.
Prices of the crop nutrient urea have surged almost fourfold amid supply scarcities, adding to cost inflation for growers, according to the Peruvian Association of Rice Producers.
That same article goes on to explain that many farmers in Peru won’t be able to afford to plant crops at all this year.
All of this is a double whammy, if not a triple whammy,” said Bart Melek, global head of commodity strategy at TD Securities. “We have geopolitical risk, higher input costs and basically shortages.”
We have never seen anything like this before." 
 ZeroHedge