China pledges to stabilize fertilizer market as planting begins

China’s agriculture ministry said it will secure sufficient fertilizer supplies and stabilize prices, as the Iran war disrupts global markets for the key crop nutrient.
The country has ample fertilizer for spring planting, the country’s main crop-sowing season, officials said at a briefing in Beijing on Thursday. While domestic prices have edged up, they’re still well below international levels, they said.

Although Chinese prices have risen much less sharply than global benchmarks, the Zhengzhou futures market for urea — the most widely used nitrogen-based fertilizer — hit its highest level since August 2024 in recent days.

The ministry’s comments highlight an urgent need to prioritize fertilizer supplies after the conflict in the Middle East sent global prices surging. Farmers around the world depend on the region for shipments, and have been forced to scramble for alternative supplies at much higher prices. China — a swing supplier to the global market in recent years — has tightened controls on exports to protect domestic supply.


The farm ministry is coordinating with other agencies to ensure adequate supplies of the crop nutrient and other farm inputs, and to secure timely distribution to meet peak demand, Lv Xiutao, head of the planting management division, said at the briefing.

Zhengzhou urea futures have risen 9% since the start of the war to 2,007 yuan ($294) a ton. In comparison, the spot price for granular urea in the US Gulf, a global benchmark, was 51% higher on Friday at $710 a ton.

Crops sown in the spring account for more than 60% of China’s grain output, establishing the time of year as crucial to the country’s food security. Plantings are proceeding as normal and acreage is stable, the ministry officials said.