Farmers are used to fertiliser prices rising with inflation, but in recent weeks they have skyrocketed amid the Russia and Ukraine conflict.
Dairy farmers have relied on good rainfall to boost grass yields for their cattle to graze.A"massive blow": this is how one SA farmer described skyrocketing fertiliser prices following Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Another spoke of being caught by surprise by the rising bills. As farmers face climbing input costs, they have resorted simply to using less fertiliser - and they expect to produce less as a result.
Usually, farmers expect fertiliser prices to increase with inflation, but these have escalated substantially since last year amid supply chain issues linked to Covid-19, explains dairy farmer Colin Wellbeloved. "… Everything goes up in a predictable manner. But fertiliser prices skyrocketed in the planting season, which was spring 2021… it doubled in the space of a couple of weeks," he recalls.Subscribe to News24 for just R75 per month to read all our investigative and in-depth journalism. You can cancel any time.