fullscreen

eFinder

eFinder

Home › Article

Iran war: Strait of Hormuz shutdown could spark food crisis

Deutsche Welle · 🇩🇪 public Germany · · 1110 words · By Nik Martin
headphones Listen to the eFinder podcast briefing
Generate a natural audio summary of this story
Daily briefing

What to know about Iran war: Strait of Hormuz shutdown could spark food crisis

Iran war: Strait of Hormuz shutdown could spark food crisis March 13, 2026The world is naturally fixated on the oil and liquefied natural gas (LNG) tankers missing from the Strait of Hormuz due to the Iran war.

Claims checked 18
Techniques found 0
Topics 0

Coverage spectrum

Coverage gap: Low Left coverage
Left0%
Center83%
Right17%

6 sources compared across this story cluster. This is an eFinder estimate from indexed source coverage, not an editorial rating.

What happened

Iran war: Strait of Hormuz shutdown could spark food crisis March 13, 2026The world is naturally fixated on the oil and liquefied natural gas (LNG) tankers missing from the Strait of Hormuz due to the Iran war.

Why it matters

After all, the narrow waterway between Iran and Oman carries around a fifth of global crude and LNG exports from the Gulf to the rest of the world.

Common ground

The more fragile cargo, however, is the fertilizer that helps feed the world and the food imports that keep Arabian Gulf states like the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Kuwait, Oman, Bahrain and Saudi Arabia alive.

Perspective signals

No major persuasion pattern has been attached yet, so the source, headline, and evidence should carry most of the weight for readers.

open_in_new Read the original article: https://www.dw.com/en/iran-us-israel-war-food-crisis-prices-fertilizer-energy-co…

fact_checkClaims Checked

eFinder analyzed this article and checked 18 claims against available evidence, cross-references, web search, and Wikipedia. Here is what the fact-checking layer found.

schedule Pending 8
help Insufficient Evidence 6
check_circle Corroborated 2
verified Verified By Reference 1
info Single Source 1
help
Claim 1: “About 1.33 million tons of fertilizer are exported through Hormuz every month, and a 30-day closure could trigger shortages.”
INSUFFICIENT EVIDENCE
This claim was extracted as a checkable statement from the article. eFinder labels it insufficient evidence based on the available evidence and source context shown below.
schedule
Claim 2: “Brent crude prices remain around $100, with US West Coast diesel prices surging to $4.69 per gallon.”
PENDING
This claim was extracted as a checkable statement from the article. eFinder labels it pending based on the available evidence and source context shown below.
schedule
Claim 3: “Gulf states import 80-90% of their food and rely on Hormuz for inbound shipments, with prolonged closures risking strategic reserve depletion.”
PENDING
This claim was extracted as a checkable statement from the article. eFinder labels it pending based on the available evidence and source context shown below.
verified
Claim 4: “Nearly half the world's traded urea comes from the Gulf region, with Qatar accounting for one-tenth of the global supply.”
VERIFIED BY REFERENCE
This claim was extracted as a checkable statement from the article. eFinder labels it verified by reference based on the available evidence and source context shown below.
menu_book
wikipedia NEUTRAL — Qatar, officially the State of Qatar, is a country in West Asia. It occupies the Qatar Peninsula on the northeastern coast of the Arabian Peninsula in the Middle East; it shares its sole land border w…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qatar
menu_book
wikipedia NEUTRAL — The Qatar diplomatic crisis was a high-profile deterioration of relations between Qatar and the Arab League between 2017 and 2021. It began when Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, and Eg…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qatar_diplomatic_crisis
menu_book
wikipedia NEUTRAL — The Cooperation Council for the Arab States of the Gulf (Arabic: مَجلِس التَّعَاوُن لِدُوَلِ الْخَلِيْجِ الْعَرَبِيَّة), also known as the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC; Arabic: مجلس التعاون الخليجي),…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gulf_Cooperation_Council
help
Claim 5: “When QatarEnergy halted production after Iranian strikes on Ras Laffan, hundreds of thousands of tons of key fertilizer nutrients and precursors were sidelined.”
INSUFFICIENT EVIDENCE
This claim was extracted as a checkable statement from the article. eFinder labels it insufficient evidence based on the available evidence and source context shown below.
help
Claim 6: “Joseph Glauber stated that higher fertilizer prices will affect crop choice and reduce fertilizer use in poorer countries.”
INSUFFICIENT EVIDENCE
This claim was extracted as a checkable statement from the article. eFinder labels it insufficient evidence based on the available evidence and source context shown below.
check_circle
Claim 7: “The Strait of Hormuz carries around a fifth of global crude and LNG exports from the Gulf to the rest of the world.”
CORROBORATED
This claim was extracted as a checkable statement from the article. eFinder labels it corroborated based on the available evidence and source context shown below.
menu_book
wikipedia NEUTRAL — The Strait of Hormuz, a major maritime choke point for global energy trade, has experienced ongoing geopolitical and economic disruption since 28 February 2026, following joint military strikes by the…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2026_Strait_of_Hormuz_crisis
menu_book
wikipedia NEUTRAL — QatarEnergy LNG, formerly Qatargas, is the world's largest liquefied natural gas (LNG) company. It produces and supplies the globe with 77 million metric tonnes of LNG annually from across its seven v…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/QatarEnergy_LNG
menu_book
wikipedia NEUTRAL — The Strait of Hormuz () is a waterway between the Persian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman. On the north coast lies Iran, and on the south coast lies the Musandam Peninsula, shared by the United Arab Emirate…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strait_of_Hormuz
+ 1 more evidence source
schedule
Claim 8: “Brazil depends on Gulf-sourced urea for 40% of its nitrogen needs, with disruptions threatening soy and maize yields.”
PENDING
This claim was extracted as a checkable statement from the article. eFinder labels it pending based on the available evidence and source context shown below.
info
Claim 9: “The compounding effects of the Iran war threaten the third major risk to global food security in six years, after the COVID-19 pandemic and Moscow's seizure of farmland and ports used to export Ukrainian grain.”
SINGLE SOURCE
This claim was extracted as a checkable statement from the article. eFinder labels it single source based on the available evidence and source context shown below.
compare_arrows
cross reference SUPPORTS — The compounding effects of the Iran war threaten the third major risk to global food security in six years.
https://www.dw.com/en/iran-us-israel-war-food-crisis-prices-…
help
Claim 10: “Fertilizer prices have risen 10 to 30% since the latest conflict began, although they're still some 40% lower than in the weeks after Russian tanks rolled into Ukraine.”
INSUFFICIENT EVIDENCE
This claim was extracted as a checkable statement from the article. eFinder labels it insufficient evidence based on the available evidence and source context shown below.
schedule
Claim 11: “India relies on the Gulf for up to two-thirds of its nitrogen fertilizer imports, with a shortage threatening the monsoon planting season.”
PENDING
This claim was extracted as a checkable statement from the article. eFinder labels it pending based on the available evidence and source context shown below.
help
Claim 12: “Iran fired on at least three vessels in or near Hormuz, according to the United Kingdom's Maritime Trade Operations.”
INSUFFICIENT EVIDENCE
This claim was extracted as a checkable statement from the article. eFinder labels it insufficient evidence based on the available evidence and source context shown below.
schedule
Claim 13: “International Monetary Fund Chief Kristalina Georgieva warned that sustained energy price increases could add 0.4 percentage points to global inflation.”
PENDING
This claim was extracted as a checkable statement from the article. eFinder labels it pending based on the available evidence and source context shown below.
schedule
Claim 14: “Sub-Saharan Africa faces heightened risk due to low fertilizer use rates and price sensitivity, potentially worsening hunger.”
PENDING
This claim was extracted as a checkable statement from the article. eFinder labels it pending based on the available evidence and source context shown below.
schedule
Claim 15: “Iran's inflation was over 40% before the conflict, with food prices rising further due to disruptions.”
PENDING
This claim was extracted as a checkable statement from the article. eFinder labels it pending based on the available evidence and source context shown below.
schedule
Claim 16: “China has imposed import restrictions on phosphate and nitrogen fertilizers but may be pressured to relax them.”
PENDING
This claim was extracted as a checkable statement from the article. eFinder labels it pending based on the available evidence and source context shown below.
check_circle
Claim 17: “Gulf nations account for 20% of global traded volumes of key fertilizers such as ammonia, phosphates and sulfur.”
CORROBORATED
This claim was extracted as a checkable statement from the article. eFinder labels it corroborated based on the available evidence and source context shown below.
menu_book
wikipedia NEUTRAL — A bay is a recessed, coastal body of water that directly connects to a larger main body of water, such as an ocean, a lake, or another bay. A large bay is usually called a gulf, sea, sound, or bight. …
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bay
menu_book
wikipedia NEUTRAL — The Gulf War was an armed conflict between Iraq and a 42-country coalition led by the United States. The coalition's efforts were in two phases: Operation Desert Shield, which marked the military buil…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gulf_War
menu_book
wikipedia NEUTRAL — The Persian Gulf, sometimes called the Arabian Gulf, is a mediterranean sea in West Asia. The body of water is an extension of the Arabian Sea and the larger Indian Ocean located between the Arabian P…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Persian_Gulf
+ 1 more evidence source
help
Claim 18: “A prolonged disruption of Hormuz could significantly tighten fertilizer availability in regions like Brazil, India, and parts of the EU.”
INSUFFICIENT EVIDENCE
This claim was extracted as a checkable statement from the article. eFinder labels it insufficient evidence based on the available evidence and source context shown below.
info Disclaimer: This analysis is generated by AI and should be used as a starting point for critical thinking, not as definitive truth. Claims are verified against publicly available sources. Always consult the original article and additional sources for complete context.