Their destination was Dubai\u2019s Port of Jebel Ali<\/a>, a major trading hub, but the jets, missiles and rockets crisscrossing Middle Eastern skies had diverted one ship to the Netherlands and another to Algeria.<\/p>\n Finally, the remainder of the 300 tons of California nuts worth $1.7 million was offloaded at the Port of Fujairah<\/a>, also in the United Arab Emirates but on the Gulf of Oman, a bit farther from the fighting.<\/p>\n Now, shipping costs to the region have tripled to $7,500 per container, and Hundal is uncertain when the Tulare County company will get its money. <\/p>\n \u201cThey will be slow in paying for those goods, and they told us whatever goods were sold already to them [that] have not shipped, please do not ship those,\u201d he said. \u201cThat will impact our cash flow. We have to pay the growers for them.\u201d<\/p>\n Since the start of the war, the average price of a gallon of diesel in California has hit $7.26. Fertilizer prices have risen too. <\/p>\n As the war unfolds in Iran<\/a>, farmers like Hundal are getting being whiplashed by forces beyond their control, including the cutting off of key export markets and a sharp rise in the cost of doing business.<\/p>\n The war has driven up the price of diesel<\/a> that fuels trucks and farm and ranch equipment, as well as fertilizers critical for increasing crop yields \u2014 leading to fears that if the conflict goes on much longer it could push up prices at the market. <\/p>\n The average price of a gallon of diesel in California has hit $7.26, up more than $2 compared with a month ago. Diesel that powers tractors and other non-road vehicles and engines is typically almost $1 cheaper as it is exempt from certain taxes.<\/p>\n Tara Gallegos, a spokesperson for Gov. Gavin Newsom, blamed the farm economy difficulties on President Trump\u2019s \u201crecklessness\u201d in starting the war.<\/p>\n \u201cCalifornia farmers are getting hit twice with higher fertilizer costs and higher fuel costs. Every American will wind up paying for that at the grocery store because these commodities are priced globally,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n Trump has made conflicting statements about the rise in fuel prices, contending that it is a \u201csmall price to pay\u201d to pursue his war aims of knocking out Iran, but also saying he wants to wrap up hostilities quickly.<\/p>\n Even before the war, California\u2019s farmers were struggling due to the disruption caused last year by Trump\u2019s tariffs<\/a>, which hit farmers hard as trading partners responded with their own duties. <\/p>\n California is the largest agricultural state in the nation as measured by the value of its crops, which topped $60 billion<\/a> for the first time in 2024 \u2014 and it was hit with corresponding big losses last year.<\/p>\n The value of the top 13 state agricultural products exported to China \u2014 including almonds, pistachios and dairy \u2014 fell in aggregate by 64%, or $1 billion, in 2025, <\/a>according to a recent UC Davis estimate.<\/p>\n Faith Parum, an economist at the American Farm Bureau Federation, <\/a> said the rise in fertilizer and diesel prices follows last year\u2019s tariff-related trade disruption and several years of natural disasters, including droughts and freezes. <\/p>\n \u201cHow do we make sure that we keep farmers in business? Because it is a matter of national security and food security,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n Parum noted that farmers who plant crops such as corn, soy, rice and cotton have experienced nationwide losses of $90 billion since 2023. <\/p>\n Key ingredients for some fertilizers come from the oil-and-gas-rich Middle East, where the war has unsettled markets and supply chains.<\/p>\n Already there are reports that some fertilizers are up by a third or more in price. The rise is taking place in California and across the U.S. even though the country produces the majority of its nitrogen-based fertilizers, which are critical to improving crop yields.<\/p>\n The fertilizers are typically applied by U.S. farmers either as liquid nitrogen, liquid ammonia or as pellets of urea, which is the most common nitrogen-based fertilizer in the world, said Veronica Nigh, chief economist at the Fertilizer Institute<\/a>.<\/p>\n While the vast majority of liquid nitrogen and ammonia is domestically produced, the U.S. imports about half of its urea, making it susceptible to the Middle East supply shock. <\/p>\n All nitrogen fertilizers are derived from ammonia, which is made using natural gas \u2014 with half of all exportable urea supplies coming from the oil-and-gas rich Mideast, where it has to pass through the disputed Strait of Hormuz, she said.<\/p>\n Prices are up worldwide, with fertilizer plants closing in Bangladesh, raising the specter of an urea shortage. That could lead to food shortages first in less wealthy countries, while U.S. consumers might see higher food prices unless the war winds down quickly, Nigh said.<\/p>\n Food prices rose sharply after Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022, but that was largely due to the countries being major grain exporters.<\/p>\n \u201cThis is different than anything we\u2019ve experienced before, in that it is not occurring in a single market, and that it is something that is a critical input to growers around the world,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n Sunrise over some of the 14,000 acres of walnut and almond orchards of Sequoia Nut Company and Custom Almonds.<\/p>\n The war is hitting Midwest farmers just as they enter the planting season for crops such as wheat, corn and soybean, and need to apply vast quantities of fertilizer. <\/p>\n California grows those crops too, but the big money is in nuts, produce and other \u201cspecialty\u201d crops, leading to a constant demand for fertilizer. \u201cYou have price and purchase exposure throughout the year,\u201d Nigh said.<\/p>\n Sal Parra Jr., who helps run his family\u2019s 1,500-acre farm in Fresno County and is operations director at the more than 10,000-acre Bowles Farming Co.<\/a> in adjacent Merced County, is the kind of farmer Nigh is talking about.<\/p>\n The two farms plant a large variety of crops, including nuts, corn, wheat, cotton, alfalfa and fruits and vegetables \u2014 all needing a variety of fertilizers and other nutrients. <\/p>\n The rise in costs are bad enough, but now there are fears that a key liquid fertilizer, UAN-32 \u2014 which contains three forms of nitrogen, including liquid urea \u2014 could be in short supply.<\/p>\n \u201cWe actually have taken the initiative at Bowles to fill as much storage as we have available with fertilizer to try to lessen the blow,\u201d he said, noting his family farm doesn\u2019t have the capacity to store much fertilizer.<\/p>\n There are techniques to stretch supplies by more efficiently applying fertilizer, Parra noted, such as by administering soil treatments, though they are costly.<\/p>\n In addition to rising fuel costs, farmers in the Central Valley say they are stockpiling fertilizer and looking for otherways to fertilize their crops. <\/p>\n \u201cI think that a year like this, where you see fertilizer prices moving the way they\u2019re moving, it may justify using other methodologies,\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019m going to get very creative with with our fertilizer programs.\u201d<\/p>\n At the same time, he said, the farms are having to absorb higher costs for diesel, which runs pumps, tractors and big rigs carrying crops to market.<\/p>\n Much of what the farms sell is on contract with prices already set, which means those costs will have to be absorbed for now, said Parra, who worries many state crops could see lower sales as prices eventually rise in markets.<\/p>\n \u201cA lot of what we grow are beautiful watermelons, or carrots or tomatoes, and depending on what the price is, people may or may not buy it,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n The economic shocks caused nationwide by extreme weather events, the disruption of export markets and now the war have prompted the industry, including California growers, to seek federal assistance.<\/p>\n A driver hauls almonds in a tractor trailer to the scales to be weighed at Sequoia Nut Company and Custom Almonds in Tulare, Calif, on Thursday.<\/p>\n Trump\u2019s massive tax-cut-and-spending bill last year increased payments to farmers. In December, Trump approved $12 billion in emergency assistance<\/a>, including $1 billion for the kind of produce, nuts and other specialty crops grown in California.<\/p>\n And just last week, the administration issued an emergency fuel waiver to allow continuing nationwide sales of E15<\/a> \u2014 a gasoline blended with 15% ethanol, nearly all of which is produced from corn grown by U.S. farmers.<\/p>\n \u201cThat is very helpful,\u201d Parum said.<\/p>\n Typically, sales of the gas are restricted during the summer due to the volatility of ethanol and its contribution to smog, but the Farm Bureau maintains that new studies show the blend is non-polluting.<\/p>\n Other relief being sought includes dropping long-standing duties on countries that export fertilizer products to the U.S., such as Morocco, a supplier of phosphates.<\/p>\n The war also is disrupting key markets for growers like Sequoia.<\/p>\n While the Middle East isn\u2019t as large an export market for California farmers and ranchers as Canada, the European Union or Mexico; the United Arab Emirates ranks in the top 10<\/a> as the nuts, strawberries and other products exported there are distributed across the region.<\/p>\n Eric Andrade and Bikram Hundal, Vice President of Operations at Sequoia Nut Company and Custom Almonds discuss quality control in the company offices in Tulare, Calif., on Thursday.<\/p>\n![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/1774786222_7_.jpeg\")
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