The National Fertilizer Development Centre (NFDC) today released the Fertilizer offtake for the month of December, 2017 and for the cumulative offtake during Rabi 2017 – 18 (October to December). The data also shed some light on the future outlook for the remaining three months of Rabi season.

Fertilizer data reveals significant decline in offtake of Fertilizer products during the month of December. The monthly average for December during the last five years stands at 510,153.2 tonnes per months. The total offtake during December clocked in at 480,252 tonnes 19.2% down from last month and 6% lower than the December average during the last five years.  

During first two months of the current Rabi 2017-18 (Oct-Nov), total nutrients offtake decreased by 19.2 per cent as compared with same time frame of last year.

Nitrogen offtake decreased by 20.2 per cent, phosphate offtake also shrank by 16.1 per cent whereas, total potash offtake reported a 90.2% spike during the month over same time frame of last year. Potash is important for agriculture because it improves water retention, yield, nutrient value, taste, color, and texture and disease resistance of food crops as farmers prepare the soils for sowing of Maize, Sorghum, Sunflower, Soybean, Sugarcane and Tomatoes.

Fertilizer Offtake – December & Rabi Season 2017 – 18

In product terms urea offtake decreased by 20.1 per cent, DAP offtake also decreased by 7.3 per cent during first three months of Rabi 2017-18 (Oct – Dec)

The Nutrient/Product wise breakup of Fertilizer offtake during the month of December:-.

• Total Nutrient offtake during December clocked in at 480,000 tonnes against 595,000 tonnes in December, 2016; a fall of 19.2%.
• Nitrogen offtake (Dec, 2017) was 396 thousand tonnes; decreasing by 20.2 per cent
• Phosphate offtake (Dec, 2017) was 82 thousand tonnes; decreasing by 22.9 per cent.
• Urea offtake (Dec, 2017) was 717 thousand tonnes; decreasing by 20.1 per cent
• DAP offtake (Dec, 2017) was 150 thousand tonnes; decreasing by 7.3 per cent

Fertilizer Production and Import

The data regarding imports and production for December, 2017 revealed production of 645 thousand tonnes. Of the produced amount, 485 thousand tonnes was in Urea, 65 thousand tonnes for DAP, 43 thousand tonnes for CAN, 0.3 thousand tonnes for SSP, and 6 thousand tonnes for NPK.

On the imports side, 103 thousand tonnes of DAP, 0.3 thousand tonnes of SSP, 1 thousand tonnes of SOP and MOP each and 1.1 thousand tonnes of SOP were imported.

Domestic Price Scenario – Fertilizer

Domestic prices for almost all the Fertilizer products remained relatively unmoved during December, whereas international prices continue to remain stable.

Note: All data has been provided by National Fertilizer Development Centre