‘Govt should halt import to utilise existing stocks’

National distributor had previously requested govt to import 0.5m tons during Rabi season

LAHORE: Fertiliser manufacturers in the country have urged the government to halt the import of urea since, according to them, local stocks are sufficient to fulfill demand for the next six months.

“Fertiliser manufacturers are forecasting a surplus urea inventory in the country, enough to meet the local demand over the next six months (October 2017 till March 2018),” Fertilizer Manufacturers of Pakistan Advisory Council (FMPAC) said on Tuesday.



The statement came in response to rumours that fertiliser distributor, the National Fertilizer Marketing Limited (NFML), is urging the government to import 0.5 million tons of urea during the upcoming ‘Rabi’ Crop-season, it said.

Since local urea producers have achieved a high level of productivity over the past couple of years, Pakistan now has gained the strategic strength to stop spending precious foreign exchange on importing large volumes of expensive urea from abroad, the statement added.

“The inventory position during the year had swallowed to a level that the government allowed export of 600,000 tons. NFML was unable to sell the imported urea bought at very high price and the ECC had to allow them to sell at a throw-away price Rs1,000 per bag with a loss of over Rs600 per bag.



At the end of October the country has a carry-over inventory of 719,000 tons.  “This stock is much bigger than the monthly demand of urea in Pakistan, so policymakers need not consider the imports of urea,” the statement said.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 8^th, 2017.

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