Fertiliser shortages will have ‘dramatic’ effect on global food prices, warns farming boss

The strait’s closure has cut off flows of liquefied natural gas, an important input for nitrogen-based fertilisers such as urea. The impact on Grosvenor will be limited, Preston added, because the organisation does not use much fertiliser and relies on cow dung, where possible.

The Grosvenor Group owns swathes of properties in high-end London districts such as Belgravi and Mayfair. Photograph: Mike Kemp/In Pictures/Getty Images

His remarks came a few days after the head of the world’s largest fertiliser company Yara International warned that the war in the Middle East could cause food shortages and price rises in some of Africa’s poorest and most vulnerable communities.

Research by Opinium this week found that 80% of Britons are worried about the rising price of groceries, which stems from retailers passing on cost increases to consumers.

Grosvenor posted an 18% decrease in underlying profits to £70.5m last year, affected by its North American operations. Its UK property business remained a bright spot, however, with 97% occupancy; its biggest project ever, the revamp of South Molton Street in central London including offices, shops, a hotel and 33 homes near Oxford Street, which is due to be completed next year.

Owned by the duke, Hugh Grosvenor, 35 – one of Britain’s richest men with an estimated wealth of £9.56bn and godfather to Prince George – the company has an ambition to build 700 social homes in north-west England. So far, 69 have been constructed near Chester and Ellesmere Port, with a further 120 to be built this year.

The group paid out dividends of £53.7m to the duke’s family and its trusts, up from £52.4m in 2024. Grosvenor paid total taxes of £248m, against £107.4m in 2024, including £200m in the UK. This is largely because of UK property sales, which increased personal taxes on income and gains by £61m and corporate income tax payments by £71.9m.

Grosvenor has been investing more in flexible office space, and last week started work on its first directly managed flexible workspace outside London, in Manchester’s Northern Quarter.

James Raynor, chief executive of the company’s property arm, said about 23% of its offices in London were flexible workspace, and “well over 90% occupied, so it’s performing very well”.