National Fertilizer Secretariat rejects false claims, confirms global urea prices now between $840 and $900 per metric ton, far above misleading reports.
The National Fertilizer Secretariat has emphasized that allegations claiming the government is importing fertilizer at higher prices despite being able to obtain urea fertilizer from Kazakhstan at a very low cost are baseless. Issuing a clarification regarding a news item broadcast by certain media networks on May 4, the Secretariat made this statement.
Although the news item claimed that a metric ton of urea fertilizer could be purchased from Kazakhstan for between 220and320, data confirms that current global market prices for fertilizer are several times higher than that, the Secretariat announced.
According to reports from ‘Argus’ magazine, which publishes international fertilizer prices, the current FOB price for urea in the Middle East is between 840and910 per metric ton. The Fertilizer Secretariat further pointed out that even India purchased urea last month at a price exceeding $900 per metric ton.
Although the government has promptly granted approval to all institutions that have requested to import urea fertilizer from Kazakhstan, no company, including ‘Ceylon Trading and Plantation (Pvt) Ltd’ which obtained such approval, has imported fertilizer from Kazakhstan to date, the Secretariat also stated.
According to the Argus report presented by the Fertilizer Secretariat, prices remain at high levels due to limited supply currently in the world market. Even major buyers such as Brazil are reluctant to purchase fertilizer at prices of $750-780 (CFR) due to the high market prices.
Accordingly, the National Fertilizer Secretariat further requests the public to be critical of such misleading news, as there is a large gap between the prices presented by farmer representatives and the actual prices in the international market.
