Risk, returns & timeframes illustration
1 min read
March 29, 2022
by

Broken links in the food chain

Your Friday takeaways may be under threat but that’s the least of the world’s woes with looming food shortages. 🍟 Ukraine crop shortages and Russia’s squeeze on fertilisers may break the food chain.
1 min read
March 29, 2022
by

Broken links in the food chain

Your Friday takeaways may be under threat but that’s the least of the world’s woes with looming food shortages. 🍟 Ukraine crop shortages and Russia’s squeeze on fertilisers may break the food chain.
1 min read
March 29, 2022
by

Broken links in the food chain

Your Friday takeaways may be under threat but that’s the least of the world’s woes with looming food shortages. 🍟 Ukraine crop shortages and Russia’s squeeze on fertilisers may break the food chain.
Table of contents
Getting Started Investing course
Free Getting Started Course
Take your first, or next, step to becoming a confident investor with Hatch's free online course – just 10 minutes a day, for 10 days.

As the northern hemisphere’s planting season begins, Ukrainian farmer Igor Borisov may have ominously called it when he said, ‘You cannot build a forecast on Vladimir Putin’. As his fellow country folk swap seed packs for arms and tractors for tanks, the world is bracing for shortages of wheat, corn, and barley and sunflower seeds used for cooking oil (Ukraine currently produces half the world’s sunflower oil). 🌾 But running out of oil to sizzle your Friday fish ‘n’ chips is the least of impending global food woes. 

Western sanctions on Russia have stymied shipping trade with the warring nation, and the Russian government has recommended the country halts all exports of fertilisers and the raw materials used to make them: potash, phosphate and nitrogen. That’s 13% of the world’s total supply, worth US$7 billion in 2020. While interim CEO of Canadian company Nutrien (NTR) Ken Seitz says they could pump up their potash production to meet increased demand, he warns it’s a balancing act, adding, ‘That's the line that we're trying to walk this year’. Yet despite rising oil prices hiking up transportation costs, there’s been a surge of investor interest in fertiliser makers outside Russia - Nutrien, Adecoagro (AGRO), Mosaic Co (MOS) and CF Industries Holdings (CF) all have seen a significant upswing since the Russian invasion on 24 February. 

But Agco chief executive Eric Hansotia says hunger runs deeper than empty bellies. 🌽 ‘This is a really big deal,’ he warns, ‘because when that volume of calories comes out of the food chain, it triggers other things. Not only hunger but unrest’. He cites the last major food supply disruption as a potential trigger for the Arab Spring.

In the US, wheat production has been declining since its 2008 peak, and while American agriculture could accelerate, if the war disappears as quickly as it appeared, economist Scott Irwin cautions that farmers could be left ‘holding the bag’. 🧑‍🌾 But weathering storms is nothing new for US farmers, who have John Deere (DE) in their sights as their movement for their Right to Repair turns farmers into hackers. 🚜

We’re not financial advisors and Hatch news is for your information only. However dazzling our writing, none of it is a recommendation to invest in any of the companies or funds mentioned. If you want support before making any investment decisions, consider seeking financial advice from a licensed provider. We’ve done our best to ensure all information is current when we pushed ‘publish’ on this article. And of course, with investing, your money isn’t guaranteed to grow and there’s always a risk you might lose money.

Join the Kiwis who are hatching their tomorrow and have invested more than $1 billion with Hatch.

Explore another series
Tax
Money
Economy
Investing

More recent news articles

Recent learn articles

8 min read
Dec 3, 2024

Nvidia hitting highs in the ‘age of AI’

Some early Nvidia investors may be ready to retire, but with global AI demand appearing to increase, the semiconductor manufacturer may not be the only chip stock on the block. And while Nvidia’s third quarter earnings beat expectations, and lifted major indexes in 2024, does their heavy weighting make indexes more volatile?
Read more
7 min read
Nov 12, 2024

How a Trump presidency could shape global economics

The US has chosen their 47th president. Now, as President-elect Donald Trump prepares to move back into The White House, how could his policies affect Americans, New Zealanders and the world? Was this the ‘inflation election? And what could it mean for the future of crypto?
Read more
6 min read
Oct 22, 2024

Cybersecurity in 2024: What you need to know

The world is short 4 million cyber professionals, your strongest password should take 11 billion years to hack, 3,600 emojis could make passwords stronger, and one cyber stock is up more than 500% in 5 years despite grounding flights. Find out how you can fight crime one password at a time in 2024.
Read more

Related news articles

More recent learn articles

No items found.

Recent news articles

More recent learn articles

8 min read
Dec 3, 2024

Nvidia hitting highs in the ‘age of AI’

Some early Nvidia investors may be ready to retire, but with global AI demand appearing to increase, the semiconductor manufacturer may not be the only chip stock on the block. And while Nvidia’s third quarter earnings beat expectations, and lifted major indexes in 2024, does their heavy weighting make indexes more volatile?
Read more
7 min read
Nov 12, 2024

How a Trump presidency could shape global economics

The US has chosen their 47th president. Now, as President-elect Donald Trump prepares to move back into The White House, how could his policies affect Americans, New Zealanders and the world? Was this the ‘inflation election? And what could it mean for the future of crypto?
Read more
6 min read
Oct 22, 2024

Cybersecurity in 2024: What you need to know

The world is short 4 million cyber professionals, your strongest password should take 11 billion years to hack, 3,600 emojis could make passwords stronger, and one cyber stock is up more than 500% in 5 years despite grounding flights. Find out how you can fight crime one password at a time in 2024.
Read more