Fertilizer, diesel costs beset farmers

May 20, 2026

The Manitoba farmer has dodged rising nitrogen fertilizer prices — he pre-bought last fall — but if costs continue to climb, he’ll be seeking more soybeans for 2027.

The crop doesn’t require much nitrogen fertilizer, unlike the wheat and corn Rempel is currently spreading across his land near Landmark.

Nitrogen fertilizer prices have jumped 30 to 40 per cent in Western Canada since the United States and Israel attacked Iran earlier this year, according to Farm Credit Canada. Around one-third of global seaborne fertilizer ships through the now-blockaded Strait of Hormuz.

Farm diesel prices have also skyrocketed, from $1.30 to roughly $2 per litre. Agriculture experts expect grocery prices to jump over the next year.

For Rempel, whose diesel-powered tractors are in fields, the ballooned costs have already appeared.

“Fingers-crossed that the price goes down a little bit before fall, but that may be a bit optimistic,” Rempel said, referencing the demands of harvest season. “Right now … we need to get the crop in the ground and so you pay what the price is.”

His roughly 2,000-acre farm sees up to 5,000 litres of diesel used on a busy seeding week. Spring fuel-ups are a fraction of Rempelco Acres’s direct input costs, Rempel noted — fertilizer is the biggest expense.

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Video: Alberta Honey: A Day at Molenkamp Honey Farms

When was the last time you read the label on your honey?

We spent a day at Molenkamp Honey Farms with Michael Molenkamp, who has been keeping bees for 17 seasons and runs three to four thousand hives. In mid-September, he was finishing treatments and getting his bees ready for winter, and he walked us through how Alberta honey gets made.

Alberta has just 150 commercial beekeepers running 300,000 colonies, and together they produce 40% of Canada’s honey. Long summer days and golden canola fields give Alberta honey a light flavour that’s hard to match anywhere else.

Molenkamp calls Alberta beekeepers some of the most resilient farmers he knows. There’s plenty of Alberta honey to go around, but a lot on our shelves isn’t from here, so his ask is simple. Give the label a second look and choose honey made by Alberta beekeepers, or buy straight from a beekeeper near you.