WASHINGTON, D.C. — Congress is considering the Homegrown Fertilizer Act, a bipartisan bill that would authorize the Secretary of Agriculture to provide grants and loans to promote domestic fertilizer manufacturing, processing, and storage. The proposal follows surging U.S. fertilizer prices and global supply disruptions caused by the war in Iran and new Chinese export restrictions.

The war in Iran has disrupted global hydrocarbon markets and triggered a crisis in fertilizers derived from natural gas. Marine traffic through the Strait of Hormuz has come to a virtual standstill, removing 50 percent of the world’s traded sulfur and 36 percent of globally traded urea from the market. Since March 12, ammonia shipments out of the Middle East, including from Oman’s port in the Arabian Sea, have completely halted.

Benchmark prices for anhydrous ammonia in the United States rose over 25 percent—$160 per ton—in the first month of the Iran conflict and have continued to climb. Between February 2026 and April 2026, the price of anhydrous ammonia increased by nearly $300 per ton. The benchmark price of urea has also risen by over 25 percent since the conflict began. Urea and urea ammonium nitrate account for more than half of the nitrogen-based fertilizer used in the United States, and the country imports over 50 percent of its supply, mostly from Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Canada, Russia, and Algeria.

On May 1, 2026, China banned the export of sulfuric acid, a key input for phosphate-based fertilizers. U.S. sulfuric acid prices have since risen to $400 per metric ton from $155 before the war, while sulfur prices climbed from $650 to $1,060 per metric ton between early April and late May 2026. The Iran crisis alone could increase farmers’ urea costs by as much as $1.3 billion.

Although U.S. ammonia production is slated to expand by 22.19 million metric tons per year by 2030, the largest new facility is not expected to be operational until 2028. Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins said that 106 fertilizer projects funded under the Biden administration’s Fertilizer Expansion Program never reached construction due to stalled climate permits. Expediting federal and state environmental reviews for projects like the CF Industries Blue Point plant in Louisiana, the Nueces Green Ammonia plant in Texas, and the Atlas Agro Pacific Green Fertilizer plant in Washington state could make a difference for farmers in the next two years.