Prices of fertilizer — the backbone of the global food supply — hit record highs as Western sanctions on Russia stall the world's biggest exporter

• The world's supply of fertilizer is facing a shortage, and prices have hit record highs.
• Russia is the world's biggest exporter of fertilizer, which is a crucial piece of the global food supply.

A key resource for the world's food supply is facing surging prices and a shortage amid Russia's war in Ukraine.

Fertilizer — which is credited with helping the world multiply its food supply and therefore, its population — is in short supply since Putin's forces attacked Ukraine last month, according to a report from the Wall Street Journal.

That's because Russia, as the world's biggest exporter of fertilizer, is facing crippling sanctions from the West leading to a global drop in provisions, the Journal said. That issue is compounded with surging prices of natural gas, another Russian export that's key to the creation of fertilizer.

According to data from Bloomberg's Green Markets North America Fertilizer Index, the price of the crucial resource is at a record high since the index started in 2002. It's now about $1,200 per short ton from around $600 a year ago. And compared to 2020, fertilizer prices have quadrupled, the data shows.

The effect of rising prices and a supply shortage could hit almost every plate. That's because, according to a November Bloomberg article, which reported on the already-rising prices of fertilizer before the Ukraine war, nearly every morsel of food is produced with the help of fertilizer. The result could be increasing food insecurity for the world's poorest people.

"I am deeply concerned that the violent conflict in Ukraine, already a catastrophe for those directly involved, will also be a tragedy for the world's poorest people living in rural areas who cannot absorb the price hikes of staple foods and farming inputs that will result from disruptions to global trade," the president of the United Nations International Fund for Agricultural Development told the Wall Street Journal.

In response to Russia's war in Ukraine, the West enacted sanctions to largely cut the country off from the global financial system and to cripple its markets. The effects have been widespread as the globe continues to reckon with supply shortages and rising commodity prices.