THERE won’t be a shortage in fertilizer supply due to the Iran war, Agriculture Secretary Francisco Tiu Laurel Jr. said on Wednesday.
“I reviewed all the figures on where our fertilizer comes from,” Tiu Laurel said, noting that the Philippines has “sufficient sources and viable alternatives. Supply is not the issue, it’s really the price.”
Based on 2025 data, Tiu Laurel said only 20 percent of the country’s 713,000 metric tons of imported urea-based fertilizers come from Saudi Arabia and Qatar, two of the Middle East countries caught in the crossfire of the US-Israel war on Iran.
The bulk of fertilizer shipments are from Indonesia, Brunei, Malaysia, China and Vietnam, while imported ammonium sulfate fertilizers are from China and Japan.
The primary threat from the war, which is entering its fifth week, is price inflation driven by increased logistics costs and market uncertainty, Tiu Laurel said, noting that the Agriculture department has been promoting a shift to alternatives such as biofertilizers even before the Middle East conflict began.
On Tuesday, Tiu Laurel and Senate Committee on Agriculture Chairman Francis Pangilinan visited a facility in Santa Rosa, Laguna, Agri Specialists Inc., which produces commercial quantities of biofertilizer developed by researchers from the National Institute of Molecular Biology and Biotechnology at the University of the Philippines Los Baños.
A kilogram of biofertilizer from Agri Specialists can replace two 50-kilogram bags of urea-based fertilizer, the company said, adding that it costs P750, or less than one-third of the price of a bag of complete 14-14-14 fertilizer, which costs P2,500.
According to field tests, farmers can reduce traditional use of urea without sacrificing crop yields. ”If you used to apply 10 sacks of urea, you might now be able to use only half or even just three,” Tiu Laurel said, citing successful trials of bio-based and nanotechnology-driven solutions.
The government is also preparing financial safeguards in anticipation of food price hikes due to oil shocks from the war.
“Everything will be affected,” Tiu Laurel noted, saying that despite stable supply lines, food will be more expensive due to the global rise in oil and freight costs.
For many agricultural products, Tiu Laurel estimates increases of P2 to P5 per kilogram, mostly due to transport costs.
Rice is the most vulnerable crop due to its heavy reliance on fertilizer, unlike highland vegetables, the Department of Agriculture (DA) said, adding that corn growers can use alternative inputs to help sustain output.
Pangilinan said that since the 2026 appropriations for agriculture was already insufficient prior to the war, the Senate can approve the provision of a supplemental budget if necessary.
For his part, Tiu Laurel said the DA will take the necessary measures to maintain a stable food supply and protect consumers from price hikes.