January 25, 2022 (MLN): The country’s overall nutrients offtake fell by 31.8% to 408,000 tonnes during December 2021 from 598,000 tonnes in the same period last year, the latest monthly data of fertilizer offtake issued by the National Fertilizer Development Company (NDFC) showed.
Among the nutrients, nitrogen and phosphate offtake decreased by 31% and 37.3% to stand at 332,000 and 70,000 tonnes, respectively during December 2021. While potash offtake went up by 33.6% when compared to December 2020.
The report underlined that about 773,000 tonnes of different fertilizer products were manufactured in Pakistan during the month of December 2021. The major share was of urea (72%) with 557,000 tonnes.
Other products were DAP 76,000, Nitrophos 59,000, CAN 74,000, SOP 1,900 and SSP 4,800 tonnes. Total imported supplies were 2,200 tonnes which included SOP 1,300, MOP 500 and MAP 400 tonnes during December 2021, it added.
During the first three months of the current Rabi 2021-22 (Oct-Dec), total nutrients offtake stood at 1,444,000 tonnes, depicting a decline of 5% as compared with the same time frame of last year. Out of this, nitrogen and phosphate offtake fell by 5% and 6.7%, respectively while potash offtake witnessed an upsurge of 35.2% over the corresponding period of last year.