Vietnam Imports less Fertiliser in Jan-Nov

Vietnam Imports less Fertiliser in Jan-Nov

Vietnam imported around 3.61 million tons of fertilizer in the first eleven months of this year, representing a 3.1 per cent decrease on-year, according to the Government Statistics Office.

The value of fertilizer imports, however, rose by 29 per cent on-year during the period, to US$721 million, the office said.

Of the total fertilizer imports, around 1.586 million tons of urea, which constitutes the largest amount, valued at US$337 million, was imported during the January-November period, down 11.9 per cent on-year in volume but up 20.9 per cent on-year in value.

In November alone, the country spent around US$95 million on the import of 400,000 tonnes of fertiliser (including 200,000 tons of urea worth US$50 million).

The country will import an additional 300,000 tonnes of urea in December this year, bringing the total of 900,000 tonnes for the 2004-05 winter-spring crop, Luong said, adding that Vietnam had to import only 100,000-150,000 tonnes a month in January-March next year to ensure agricultural production nationwide.

Although Vietnam's fertiliser producers have raised their production, the country still heavily depends on imports. Vietnam is forecast to import around 1.6 million tonnes of urea to satisfy the agricultural production next year.

The export prices of urea from China, the country's main fertiliser seller, decreased slightly in recent days to around US$255-260 a tonne, compared to US$265 in early November.

The wholesale prices of urea fertiliser in Vietnam this week also fell by around VND500-1,000 a kilo against last week to around VND4,200-4,300 a kilo due to larger import volume and slow domestic consumption.

• T.V