Disruptions to fertiliser supplies caused by the Middle East war pose a double threat to global food security through scarcity and high prices, a top World Trade Organization official has warned, reports AFP.

Iran has virtually shut the Strait of Hormuz, choking a vital transit route for oil and gas — as well as fertilisers.

A third of the world’s fertilisers normally transit the strait, and the disruption has prompted multiple warnings about the impact on food production.

“Fertilisers are the number one issue of concern today. If there is no more fertiliser, there is an impact on quantities but also on prices,” WTO Deputy Director-General Jean-Marie Paugam told AFP in an interview in Yaounde.

“The effect compounds the following year: harvests shrink and prices rise.”

Major food exporters such as India, Thailand and Brazil depend on the Gulf for urea, a nitrogen-based fertiliser, making them vulnerable.