Rabi season: Govt likely to import 0.37m tons of urea

Total demand of the commodity is around 3m tons for cultivating crops

ISLAMABAD:

To meet the shortfall in the Rabi crop-sowing season this year, the government is planning to import 370,000 tons of urea.

It was decided during a recent meeting of the Fertiliser Review Committee that 370,000 tons of urea will be imported to meet the domestic requirement for Rabi season, which will start from April.

A senior official in the Ministry of Industries and Production said that the opening inventory of urea would be around 174,000 tons at the start of Rabi season and total domestic production is estimated at 2.5 million tons.

The total demand in the new season would be around 3 million tons and the gap would be filled through imports.

The official said that the meeting was attended by the stakeholders concerned including representatives of provincial governments, ministries of national food security and research, commerce, finance, petroleum and natural resources, Economic Affairs Division, National Fertiliser Development Centre (NFDC), National Fertiliser Marketing Limited and Trading Corporation of Pakistan (TCP).

The meeting reviewed the current situation of urea availability in the country and the future requirement for Rabi crops.

After the review, it was decided that a summary would be sent to the upcoming Economic Coordination Committee (ECC) meeting, asking it to consider the import of urea to meet the domestic requirement.

The ECC will decide about the quantity and the subsidy to be given on the import of required urea.

Officials said that two ships carrying 40,000 tons each will arrive in March, which is part of the previous consignments and would be included in the opening inventory of urea.

After approval of the ECC, the Trading Corporation of Pakistan will float tenders and invite bids from international companies.

Previously, the official said, urea was imported from China and some Gulf countries and now it would depend on the bidders from which countries they import the commodity.

An official of the Ministry of Industries and Production stated that urea supply for the ongoing Kharif sowing season is sufficient due to the availability of stocks.

For Kharif crops, 0.577 million tons had been imported to meet the domestic requirement with a subsidy of Rs507 per 50kg bag.

“We have sufficient time to complete the process for the ECC meeting and import after its approval; this was the reason why the review committee’s meeting was held a bit earlier,” the official said.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 22^nd, 2015.

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