BD to import 1.4m mts fertilizer

Bangladesh will import 1.4 million tonnes (mt) of fertilizer from Tunisia Saudi Arabia and Morocco during the 2017-18 fiscal year to meet the demand of farmers, an official document of the Ministry of Agriculture reveals, reports UNB.

According to the document, the Agriculture Ministry has set a requirement of 1.5 million mt fertiliser on the basis of a countrywide field survey conducted by the Department of Agricultural Extension (DAE).

Of the total 1.5 million (m), the survey shows, the country will need 650,000 mts TSP fertiliser and 850,000 mts DAP fertiliser.

The Agriculture Ministry has also finalised a plan to collect the required fertiliser both through import and domestic production.

As part of the plan, it will import 1.4m mt fertilizer under both the public and private initiatives while the remaining 100,000 mt will come from the production of fertilizer of different fertilizer factories owned by the Bangladesh Chemical Industries Corporation (BCIC).

In the public sector, state-owned Bangladesh Agricultural Development Corporation (BADC) will import a bulk portion of fertilizer from three major countries - Morocco, Tunisia and Saudi Arabia - by extending its current contracts of import.

Last week, the Ministry of Agriculture placed a proposal to the Cabinet Economic Affairs Committee to approve its plan to import 150,000-200,000 mt of TSP and 50,000-100,000 mt of DAP fertilizer from Morocco, some 200,000-250,000 mt of TSP fertilizer from Tunisia and also 200,000-250,000 mt of DAP fertilizer from Saudi Arabia to meet the country's requirement.

The committee approved the plan and gave a go-ahead to extend the existing contracts to import fertilizer from time to time from the three countries considering the country's requirement, official sources have said.