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No fertiliser shortage despite rising price
The supply of fertiliser, including imported fertiliser and domestically produced fertiliser, is sufficient for the upcoming summer-autumn rice crop, but prices could increase, according to speakers at a meeting held in HCM City last Friday.
Nguyen Thi Ngo, Deputy Chairwoman of the Viet Nam Fertiliser Association (VNFA), said higher prices for coal, electricity, water and imported materials would likely lead to a price hike for fertilisers.
The price of all varieties of imported fertilisers began rising in January, according to the VNFA.
The price of imported urea fertiliser, for instance, has increased by US$20-25 a tonne; DAP fertiliser, $90-120 a tonne; and sulphur fertiliser, $120-130 a tonne.
Ngo said fertiliser producers and importers were responsible for stabilising prices and ensuring supply but they had not yet received the Government's preferential policies on loan interest rates.
She said the Government should create policies to finance loan interest rates for fertiliser producers and importers who have helped to keep prices stable.
Nguyen Hac Thuy, Deputy Chairman and General Secretary of the VNFA, said that since demand for fertiliser this year had increased the market needed to be carefully monitored to adjust production volume and imports.
The VNFA was expected to have a meeting soon to discuss prices with the ministries of Finance, Industry and Trade and Agriculture and Rural Development, as well as with fertiliser producers.
Le Quoc Phong, General Director of the Binh Dien Fertiliser Company, which is one of the country's large NPK fertiliser producers, said his company would keep fertiliser prices stable until May.
The VNFA also called for better cooperation among fertiliser importers to get the best import prices.
Phan Dinh Duc, General Director of the PetroVietnam Fertiliser and Chemicals Corporation, said domestic fertiliser producers would begin to export their products in the next two or three years.
If domestic fertiliser producers did not co-operate, they would face disadvantages in importing and exporting fertiliser because Vietnamese domestic producers could not operate independently, Duc said.
Domestic demand for fertiliser is about 9.1 million tonnes this year. Of the figure, 3.3 million will be imported and the remaining will be produced locally, according to the Ministry of Industry and Trade.
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