Profiteers and hoarders of urea: Fertilizer industry launches awareness campaign

KARACHI: The fertilizer industry launched a massive awareness campaign among the farmers about the prescribed prices of the urea fertilizer and asked them not to pay higher prices, besides report the profiteers and hoarders of urea to the government authorities.

An official of the Fertilizer Manufacturers of Pakistan Advisory Council (FMPAC) Tuesday stated that the industry supports steps taken by the government to manage hoarding and resultant profiteering on urea.

The industry has extended its full support to the government to identify any hoarding and overcharging activities. Dispatch information is being provided to the government authorities on a daily basis who are now supervising sales.

In coordination with the government authorities, sales would be managed to ensure that area wise deliveries are aligned with the agronomic demand. Industry is committed to take strict actions against culprits who are proven guilty of hoarding that would include but not limited to suspension up to cancellation of dealership agreements.

“Media campaign has also been launched whereby information is being communicated to the farmers about the prescribed prices and to urge them not to pay more than the prescribed rates,” the FMPAC stated.

Further, with assured supply of gas to all the plants, fertilizer industry is all set to supply the record volumes in 2021, never sold before, to ensure that our farmers prosper, farm yields improve, and agriculture sector continues to grow.

At the back of supportive policies of the government for agriculture sector, better farm economics have led to increase in urea demand. The domestic fertilizer industry has stepped up by supplying 5,061 thousand tonnes of urea across the country, in the first ten months, which is 10 percent higher (500,000 tons) than supplies in the same period last year. For the pure agronomic reasons so far, the demand has been higher in Sindh and in the coming days industry stands committed to meet the demand of other provinces.

Despite increased supplies and higher availability of urea the market sentiment was that the prices may increase due to partial substitution of costly DAP and rumours of imposition of GST on fertilizers. This got overplayed by the market, resulting in overcharged prices.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2021