Fertiliser sees seasonal price spike

The fertiliser market has seen prices surge VND1 million (US$47) per tonne since the beginning of this month.

Recently, the price of fertilisers increased suddenly and strongly; they were forecast to continuously increase in the coming days, said chairman of Vinacam Joint Stock Company Vu Duy Hai.

Hai added that in the first days of August, prices of urea fertiliser stood at around VND10 million ($470) per tonne. Now, it had jumped to nearly VND11 million ($523) per tonne.

Meanwhile, he added, the potassium fertiliser imported from China rose by VND400,000 ($19) to VND11 million ($523) per tonne.

Experts predicate the price will continuously increase in coming days when southern farmers start new crop. In fact, fertiliser prices often increase every time a new crop starts. And, it has continued to increase since last year.

Meanwhile, the volume of both imported and stockpiled fertiliser was declining. Domestic fertiliser traders have now temporally stopped importing fertiliser due to high prices in the world market.

Moreover, fewer companies dare to stockpile fertiliser. High banking interest rate has forced them to sell.

Explaining the reason, deputy head of the Price Management Department under the Ministry of Finance Nguyen Anh Tuan said the Government had many policies to stabilise the price such as tax exemption.

However, he affirmed, there had been many shortcomings in managing and applying such measure.

The Government supported companies in material cost but not control of retail price. Moreover, the market faced many challenges when many companies imported fertiliser through unofficial ways.

A weak distribution system was also a big reason, he added.

When coming to farmers, fertiliser price was often 30 per cent higher than it was distributed through many retail agents. — VNS

Tags: Vietnam fertilizer industry