India’s fertilizer demand decreases momently

Information at the recent “2013 FMB Asia Fertilizer Conference & Exhibition” shows that India’s fertilizer demand will decrease in the short run, which however in the long run will still rely much on supplies from international market.

 

According to Mike Nashi, a phosphorus fertilizer expert from UK, fertilizer supply in Indian market this year is affected by 4 major factors: 1) India’s relatively higher fertilizer stock in this spring, for example the stock of diamonium phosphate of 3 million tons at the present time which is at a higher side compared with same period of last year; 2) due to financial stress and change of India’s nutrient contents subsidy policy, subsidy decreases causing higher selling price, thus farmers are not positive toward fertilizer applications; 3) the falling Indian Rupee against US Dollar goes against import; 4) the cold and rainy weather in the northern hemisphere including India in this spring causes delay to the spring farming which restrains demand for fertilizer.

 

MP Sukumaran Nair from India’s green technology management center said that India will still rely on import for some time in the future. He expressed that India has a demand for 8.83 million tons of imported urea per year and it is expected that by 2020 India will need 10 million tons of imported urea. In the meantime India currently imports 6.9 million tons of diamonium phosphate per year, which is estimated to be maintained at annually 6.54 million tons even if by 2017.