High Fertilizer Prices, Thin Supply Worry Vietnamese Farmers

Soaring prices of fertilizers caused by high prices in the world market and thin supply are worrying Vietnamese farmers who are going to enter winter-spring crop, one of the two main crops in a year.

 

The Ministry of Industry and Trade said fertilizer prices increased three times in the first ten months of 2007, by VND600 per kilo of urea and VND 80,000 per bag of Kali fertilizer.

 

The Vietnam Fertilizer Association predicted fertilizer prices will continue rising by the end of 2007-08 crop, as demand for fertilizer in the northern region will soar 15 per cent-20 per cent due to colder weather.

 

The ministry forecast Vietnam needs nearly two million tons of urea, two million tons of NPK, and 1.5 million tons of phosphate fertilizers in 2008.

 

The country will have to import more than one million tons of urea while the NPK and phosphate can be supplied locally.

 

However, local fertilizers importers have not been keen on buying products due to low profit. Imported NPK fertilizer volume decreased by nearly 55 per cent in October from September.

 

Additionally, several giant urea fertilizer factories in the world cutting down production output from September 2007 to March 2008 and high transport charges are the two big reasons for the fertilizer price hike, the association said.

 

In the first eleven months of 2007, Vietnamese companies imported 3.368 million tons of many kinds of fertilizers, valued at US$848 million, up 17.8 per cent on year in volume and 33.6 per cent in value. Of the imports, some 648,000 tons were urea fertilizer worth US$171 million. (Vinanet)