Your laundry bill is about to get more expensive—and Unilever says the Iran war is partly to blame
Consumers may be feeling the effects of global energy disruptions not only at the pump but also on laundry day.
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Laundry detergent and cleaning supplies often contain petrochemicals derived from crude oil, and as passage through the Strait of Hormuz remains restricted, oil shocks are now impacting myriad household goods.
Consumer goods giant Unilever will likely hike up the costs of certain home care products, Chief Financial Officer Srinivas Phatak said on Thursday.
“There will be frequent price increases, but in small doses,” Phatak told analysts at the company’s earnings presentation. “That ensures that we get the right balance of giving value to the consumer while protecting our margin.”
Phatak said the cost increases would be between 2.7% and 3.3% this year due to inflation and other factors. The company expects full-year cost inflation to be between 750 million and 900 million euros ($876 million to $1.05 billion), about 350 million to 500 million euros ($409.5 million to $586 million) higher than initial expectations. These estimates assume the cost of crude oil remains at about 100 euros or $115 per barrel. Price increases will not significantly affect the U.S., according to the company.
Even if Americans don’t notice rising detergent costs, supply chain disruptions from the war are already being felt in their wallets. Gas prices reached $4.23 per gallon on Wednesday, their highest level this year. The consumer price index surged 0.9% seasonally adjusted in March, putting the current inflation rate at 3.3%, its highest in two years, and up 2.4% from February. For companies like Unilever, inflation can manifest in multiple parts of the business.
“The Middle East crisis has created uncertainties and has made the outlook a bit challenging,” Phatak said. “Inflation for us is just not one number. While there is crude and everyone really anchors around crude, it is complex because there are many crude-linked derivatives.”
Unilever implemented a three-month global hiring freeze at the end of March due to complications from the war in Iran, Reuters reported, citing an internal memo. The company did not respond to Fortune’s request for comment.
How the Iran war is impacting consumers
If energy supply chains remain disrupted, economists warn that the cost of the war will be felt around the dinner table, too. Beyond being the trade route through which 20% of the world’s oil usually passes, the Strait of Hormuz is also the chokepoint for about half of the world’s urea and one-third of global fertilizer.
The onset of the conflict coincided with the start of the planting season, and rising fertilizer costs have forced some farmers to make tough decisions. As of March, about a quarter of U.S. farmers had not yet purchased fertilizer for the 2026 spring planting season, according to U.S. Department of Agriculture data. Scaling back could lead to lower crop yields or a shift toward increasing production of a crop requiring less fertilizer, presenting farmers with tough choices, even as they continue to navigate financial challenges from tariffs, including higher input costs.
Historically, high energy costs have correlated with higher food costs, and the Center for Strategic and International Studies suggested greater energy prices could result in grains being diverted from food to biofuel, further increasing the cost of grain needed to feed animals, which in turn hikes the prices of dairy and meat, in addition to produce.
Even if traffic in the Strait of Hormuz returns to its usual cadence, prices are unlikely to immediately adjust back to their pre-war levels. Some analysts are operating under the assumption that the Strait won’t be fully open until the second half of the year.
“You can return to normal amounts of oil being shipped, but you can never really catch up,” Jeffrey Dorfman, professor of agricultural and resource economics at North Carolina State University, recently told Fortune. “I certainly can’t predict how long the war is going to last, but the longer it lasts, the longer oil prices will stay high, and the slower they will be in returning to normal.”
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