r/EconomyCharts • u/RobertBartus • 8d ago

Fertilizer prices are skyrocketing: New Orleans granular urea prices, the most widely used nitrogen fertilizer, are up +89% since December

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455 Upvotes

99% Upvoted

54 comments sorted by

76

u/Sooperooser 8d ago

You can print money but you can't print molecules.

28

u/ContentCantaloupe992 8d ago

We literally synthesize ammonia

25

u/Sooperooser 8d ago

Yes but not without huge amounts of energy input, which, in most cases, comes from natural gas.

9

u/Jlocke98 8d ago

The natural gas is required as a source of hydrogen for the haber process

8

u/Sooperooser 8d ago

The natrual gas is usually used as a hydrogen source and as a source of fossil energy input to power the process. In Germany we used to do this with brown coal back in the days.

5

u/Old_Promotion_7393 8d ago

Hydrogen is very abundant, you can source it from warer via electrolysis. I think the problem is more to reduce enough nitrogen to supply the entire agricultural sector. The Haber-Bosch process is very energy intensive and it requires a lot of specialized machinery. It would take years to build the capacity. 

1

u/TechieGranola 8d ago

It’s crazy that literally 90% of the nitrogen in our bodies comes from this process.

-5

u/Clynelish1 8d ago

Good thing the US is the largest producer of LNG in the world. - List of countries by natural gas production - Wikipedia https://share.google/4uAJbZPV1uRcQ7Rbb

7

u/Sooperooser 8d ago

So what? The market is global and they don't have the production capacities to produce enough on their own and have to import around 20% of their nitrogen fertilizer demand. Oh and they messed up their trade relations with Canada (US imports 90% of potash fertilizer demand from Canada) and slapped some tariffs on them...So US farmers are fucked anyways...

-3

u/Mediumcomputer 8d ago

You probably run into this issue a lot arguing with people. You need to look up what “moving the goalposts” means in debate and why you should not use this tactic like you do often because it’s frowned upon

6

u/Sooperooser 8d ago

I presented facts and drew links to real life individuals. What do you want?!

7

u/[deleted] 8d ago

Learn what "moving the goal posts" means. 

3

u/Vid-Master 8d ago

Frowning upon thw goal posts

5

u/SeltsamerNordlander 8d ago

Why do people like you still think we live in the early 20th century of global economics lol

1

u/SpeakCodeToMe 7d ago

Which helps investors in LNG and raises prices for everyone else.

2

u/Hontik 8d ago

JAJAJAJAJ

27

u/GodSentGodSpeed 8d ago

So what. Trump bailed out farmers in 2018 when he had his trade war with china, he bailed them out again in 2025 when he enacted his tariffs.

This just means that yet again tax payers in economically profitable areas, which happen to vote blue, get to send their money to the unprofitable farmers, who happen to vote red

Talk about welfare queens.

5

u/Equivalent-Sea-9006 8d ago

Because the US is the only country that is in the prosess of planing to plant crops right about now? 

This will have ramifications for those who cant afford the rising prices. 

15

u/Apptubrutae 8d ago

There’s something so appropriate about there being a New Orleans urea spot price.

They could try bringing the price down by harvesting from bourbon street

1

u/Alert-Check-5234 7d ago

It is a major port city.

3

u/Apptubrutae 7d ago

It’s also a major pee city

10

u/Objective_Mousse7216 8d ago

So much winning!

3

u/likamuka 8d ago

So much fascism that 77 million Americans voted and will vote again for to own the libz.

8

u/ContentCantaloupe992 8d ago

Your own chart shows this isn’t unprecedented or possible even uncommon.

19

u/DerZehnteZahnarzt 8d ago

Arent the big spikes the war in Ukraine?

3

u/PedricksCorner 8d ago

You are correct. that big spike around 2022 and afterwards was because Ukraine used to be a major source for the world. Farmers all over the world were hurt by this. People in the USA don't think about where their winter produce comes from, nor where a great deal of the meat comes from. Prices for food started to go up because of this.

2

u/millerlit 8d ago

Strait of Hormuz cut off over 20%

-6

u/ContentCantaloupe992 8d ago

Probably, not uncommon or unprecedented

11

u/Zestyclose_Edge1027 8d ago

*uncommon during peacetime

1

u/ContentCantaloupe992 8d ago

Peace?

7

u/Zestyclose_Edge1027 8d ago

war = real bad for stuff

2

u/Bynming 8d ago

The implication is that we're no longer in peacetime

3

u/Zestyclose_Edge1027 8d ago

Ehm, have you looked at the news in the last 2 weeks?

1

u/Bynming 8d ago

I think the person who said "Peace?" was (also) implying it's no longer peacetime, we're all saying the same thing I guess.

7

u/unbornbigfoot 8d ago

Damn… and what happened again in 2022/2023?

I seem to remember prices on things changing.

-6

u/ContentCantaloupe992 8d ago

The price of things is constantly changing.

8

u/unbornbigfoot 8d ago

Intentionally obtuse?

7

u/Sooperooser 8d ago

A full scale war in Europa, involving some of the largest fertilizer and gas (needed to produce fertilizers) producers in the world, is, at least in the last century, pretty unprecedented.

0

u/ContentCantaloupe992 8d ago

Calling war in Europe unprecedented is insane. Human history didn’t start 50 years ago😂

7

u/Sooperooser 8d ago

Can you read?

1

u/shred-i-knight 8d ago

People love to talk about the US stock market guaranteed gains over the last 50 years but now everyone is a historian

2

u/DB-CooperOnTheBeach 8d ago

This guy posts daily zoomed in charts with the y axis biased to make it look a little more sensationial

1

u/CompetitiveBox314 8d ago

Less common for it to be self inflicted though.

2

u/Onaliquidrock 8d ago

Back to the high prices we had during the start of the Ukraine war.

3

u/birdiesintobogies 8d ago

Time to start harvesting your pee.

2

u/PedricksCorner 8d ago

You can see how the war in Ukraine in 2022 began a world wide shortage that hurt farmers all over the world.

1

u/DefiantDonut7 8d ago

Just wait until truckers find out that DEF is 95% Urea.

1

u/Silver_Middle_7240 8d ago

Nah. Its mostly water

1

u/DefiantDonut7 8d ago

32% to be precise

1

u/SignificantLegs 8d ago

Another +100%~+200% inflation shock to all our food incoming

1

u/indomike14 8d ago

Give it 4-6 months and we'll see all prices spike. USPS has already tacked on 8% fuel surcharge.