Fertiliser prices increase dramatically

With global fertiliser prices surging and supply plunging in Vietnam, prices have risen sharply in the last fortnight.
Several kinds of fertilisers have seen prices increase by 50 per cent and even 100 per cent, Tuoi tre (Youth) newspaper reported.
At the same time, rice prices are falling, in what could turn out to be a double whammy for farmers.

Duong Van Thanh, a farmer in Tra Vinh Province’s Chau Thanh District, said in April urea had cost 420,000 dong for 50kg bag.

Several fertiliser agents in the Cuu Long (Mekong) Delta have now hiked prices to 620,000 dong.

Fertiliser traders said the wholesale price of imported urea was 11,400 dong per kilogramme [or 570,000 dong a bag], a rise of 10 percent in just the last fortnight and 84 per cent year-on-year.

Thanh said in April DAP fertiliser had cost 640,000 dong, and Kali fertiliser, 540,000 dong, but their prices had risen to 940,000 dong and 615,000 dong.

“The price of the summer-autumn rice has fallen by 1,000 dong per kilogramme since July,” he added.

The Fertiliser Association of Viet Nam (FAV) blamed the sharp rise in global prices for the jump in domestic prices.

Import prices have topped US$500 (10.3 million dong) per tonne, a rise of 1 million dong within a month.

On the other hand, many fertiliser traders blamed a supply shortfall for the higher price though both imports and domestic production are up sharply this year.

Customs figures show that imports rose by 550,000 tonnes year-on-year by mid-August to 2.3 million tonnes. Local production in the first eight months was up 146 per cent, according to the General Statistics Office.

A fertiliser dealer in Long An Province’s Thu Thua District said supply from both local producers and China in the last month had been inadequate to meet demand.

Vu Duy Hai, chairman and general director of HCM City-based Vinacam Joint Stock Company, said fertiliser demand had increased since early August.

Imports might have been higher than last year but lower than in the past, he said.

Besides, there had been a huge quantity of exports, he said.

“At this time in previous years, large quantities of fertiliser were stockpiled.

“[But now] shops in HCM City and other places are almost empty.”

The director of a fertiliser trading company in HCM City said companies exported because there were times when domestic prices were much lower than import prices.

The high bank interest rates dissuaded import companies from keeping fertilisers in stock for long, he pointed out.

PetroVietnam Fertiliser and Chemicals Corporation hiked the wholesale price of its Dam Phu My urea fertiliser by 700 dong per kilogramme to 11,000 dong on September 1.

It costs just 8,200 dong in February.