Non-urea fertiliser importers in need of govt help as prices fall

S M Jahangir

Against the backdrop of falling prices in the global market, the government might provide financial support to the importers for selling non-urea fertilisers at prices much lower than the cost of imports done earlier, sources said.

The local importers have suffered financial losses for reducing prices of the non-urea fertiliser prices brought in from global market at higher prices, they said.

"The price of triple super phosphate (TSP) fertiliser has declined to almost one-third of its previous global prices, raising concern among the importers with the old stocks," said a senior government official.

The prices of TSP, which were varying between US$ 1020 and $ 1060 per tonne a few months back in the international markets, have now come to only $ 350 a tonne, officials and importers said.

Hit by the declining global prices, the importers concerned have already sought the government's necessary intervention to help the importers of non-urea fertilisers overcome the problem, the official said.

Against the backdrop, the authorities recently held a meeting to discuss the matter, a meeting source told the FE.

The meeting, according the officials, also sought details about the changing global prices, the stock positions and the domestic demand for non-urea fertilisers, especially TSP and Muriate of Potash (MOP) from the Bangladesh Fertilizer Association (BFA).

After getting the details from the private fertiliser traders, the authorities will take necessary measures to this effect, said the officials.

A senior agriculture ministry official, however, indicated that the government would reduce the domestic prices of TSP and MOP in line with their global prices.

At per the previous import costs, the price of TSP has been calculated at over Tk 70 per kg while the import of one kg of TSP now costs around Tk 35, sources said.

The import price of MOP has also come down by more than 50 per cent from the previous level.

"After refixing the prices of non-urea fertilisers -- especially TSP and MOP -- at the domestic level, the government will require to compensate the losses to be incurred by the importers while selling their items below the import costs," said an official.

Referring to preliminary figures, official sources said the present stock of TSP -- both under the private importers and the state-run Bangladesh Agriculture Development Corporation (BADC) -- is around 300,000 tonnes.

The total stock of MOP fertiliser is estimated at 180,000 tonnes, they mentioned.

On the other hand, the country's demand for TSP and MOP has been fixed at 134,000 tonnes and 108,000 tonnes respectively for the current 'Boro' cropping season (January-March period), officials said.