Trade Ministry Seeks to Stabilize Urea Prices

Trade Ministry Seeks to Stabilize Urea Prices

The Ministry of Trade has submitted petitions to the Government aimed at stabilizing the domestic fertilizer market by the end of this year.

The ministry has suggested that the Ministry of Industry should manage the trading of urea fertilizer at Phu My and Ha Bac fertilizer plants to ensure the interests of both traders and farmers.

Meanwhile, the ministries of Trade and Agriculture and Rural Development will keep an eye on fluctuations in price, supply and demand on the domestic and world fertilizer markets to aid fertilizer imports to the domestic market, the trade ministry said.

It added that the two ministries would also research the domestic market and give support to domestic enterprises to build a distribution system, aimed at selling fertilizer directly to the farmers at a reasonable price.

Vietnam imported a total of 79,570 tons of urea fertilizer in May, an increase of 20,000 tons over the previous month, according to the General Department of Customs.

China and Qatar were the two largest fertilizer exporters to Vietnam, accounting for 31.6 per cent and 27.8 per cent of the total. Other urea fertilizer exporters were Bangladesh, Indonesia, Malaysia, Switzerland and Singapore.

In May, the retail price was at VND4,800-5,000 per kilo for imported fertilizer, a rise of VND200-300 over that in April and VND4,670 per kilo for Phu My fertilizer, up by VND570. (USUS$1=VND15,815)

The trade ministry expects the retail price will continue to increase by the end of this year due to a higher fertilizer demand for the summer-autumn rice crop.

The Vietnam Fertilizer Association estimates the country’s summer-autumn rice crop this year needs 560,000 tons of urea fertilizer, consisting of 220,000 tons in the north, 90,000 tons in central regions and 250,000 tons in the south.

Domestic production volume of urea fertilizer is estimated to reach 200,000 tons, the association said.

VNS, Investment