The cost of growing food

Business Daily

BBC

News, Business

4.4 • 796 Ratings

🗓️ 28 March 2022

⏱️ 17 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Global fertiliser prices are reaching record highs, as supplies from Russia, one of the world’s largest exporters dry up. As the war in Ukraine intensifies there are warnings of food shortages as farmers struggle to get hold of fertilisers and starting to rationing its use.

Soybean farmer Karl Milla tells Sam Fenwick he is rationing how much fertiliser he uses. He says he is worried what effect that will have on crop sizes later in the year. Laura Cross from the International Fertiliser Association explains why government sanctions on Belarus and countries like China, Turkey and Egypt restricting exports have contributed to soaring fertiliser prices. And German pig farmer, Dirk Andresen tells us he cannot afford to buy enough food to feed his pigs.

Presenter/producer : Sam Fenwick (Photo: Karl Milla with kind permission)

Transcript

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0:00.0	It's very hard for a farmer today.
0:05.6	I can't feed my pigs now because the price is for pig feeding is increasing.
0:11.6	Farmers around the world are facing an uncertain future.
0:15.3	The cost of producing the food we eat is rising.
0:18.6	We have to spend more money for fertilizer, for diesel, for everything,
0:24.1	and we have to get this money for that.
0:26.6	And consumers, they have to pay for that.
0:29.3	Fertiliser prices have been increasing,
0:31.7	and there are warnings of food shortages as farmers ration how much fertilizer they use.
0:37.4	I'm Sam Fennick, and today on Business Daily from the BBC,
0:41.8	we're talking about how the war in Ukraine is affecting food production around the globe.
0:47.5	Everything is changing.
0:49.3	This war changed everything.
0:55.5	So I'm walking now through a plot of soybeans.
0:59.5	One of the last plot of soybeans that are still waiting to be harvested this year.
1:05.0	It's a beautiful summer afternoon, about 5 o'clock.
1:08.4	The sun is clear, some scattered clouds in the sky, about 30 degrees Celsius.
1:13.7	Carl Miller and his family have been farmers in Brazil since the 1950s. They have two farms.
1:20.1	This one in the south, which is about 4,000 hectares and a 30,000 hectare farm in northeast Brazil.
1:27.3	They grow soybeans and corn in the summer months and barley in the winter.
1:32.6	Our yields have been increasing every year.
1:38.5	Last year we've had an average of 5,400 kilos per hectare in soybeans,
	...

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