Govt plans to import 1.75 million mts of fertilizer

FT ONLINE

The Ministry of Agriculture wants to import 1.75 million tonnes (mt) of MOP and DAP fertilizers to meet the demand for the upcoming fiscal year 2018-19.

The requirement was determined through a countrywide survey, conducted by the Department of Agricultural Extension (DAE) under the ministry.

Of the demand, 850,000 mt will be met with MOP (Muriate of Potash) fertilizer while the remaining 900,000 mt with DAP (Diammonium phosphate) fertilizer.

The document also reveals that the entire demand of MOP and DAP will be met through import from foreign sources, both in public and private sectors.

Of this, the ministry’s marketing outfit Bangladesh Agricultural Development Corporation (BADC) will import about half of the total MOP and DAP fertilisers from different state-owned companies of different countries.

In this case, Morocco, Russia, Belarus, Canada and Saudi Arabia will be the main suppliers of such chemical fertiliser from which Bangladesh have been importing MOP and DAP from last several years under government-to-government agreements.

As per the BADC plan, it will import 500,000 mt of MOP and 400,000 DAP fertilisers under the G-to-G contracts.

Of this, each 150,000-200,000 mt of MOP fertiliser will be imported from Russia, Belarus and Canada while 250,000-350,000 mt of DAP from Saudi Arabia’s Ma’aden company.

For the current fiscal year of 2017-18, the BADC signed separate contracts with four state-owned companies of four countries for importing a total of 840,000 mt of MOP and DAP fertilisers. Those contracts will expire in June this year.

So, an official said, the ministry has moved a proposal to renew its existing contracts with countries and the Cabinet Economic Affairs Committee recently approved the proposal for the bulk fertiliser import.