Key takeaway
Australia has no strategic fertiliser reserve. The phosphate supply chain breaks on a predictable cycle and this time it is not recovering. With one domestic mine remaining and more than 90% of phosphate rock imported, the gap between what planners assume and what the supply chain can actually deliver is now visible. The question is no longer whether a disruption will happen. It is whether anyone in a position to act will move before the planting window closes.
India is rationing. Brazil panic-bought. Africa is planting with whatever is left. Australia is watching.
Todd Crowley sits down with John Cotter — the man holding the largest phosphate deposit in Australia, 130km northwest of Mount Isa — for a conversation that was recorded before the current global fertiliser crisis hit.
The warning was accurate. Nobody acted on it.
Australia imports more than 90% of the phosphate rock that goes into our fertiliser. Global shipping breaks every 7 to 11 years. We are in a crisis now — except this time the cycle is not resetting. Northwest Phosphate holds the last remaining domestic fertiliser rock mine in the country. We have no strategic reserve. None.
This episode is for anyone whose portfolio depends on Australian agricultural output, sovereign supply chain continuity, or critical minerals capability. The planting window does not wait — and neither does the risk.
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