India’s production of chemical fertilisers dropped in the first month of the current fiscal, whereas sales have jumped and import was nearly flat. But the latest data also show that the sales were much lower than estimated demand for the month of April, even as availability had no issue.
According to official data, overall consumption of key fertilisers – urea, Di-ammonium Phosphate (DAP), Muriate of Potash (MOP) and complex – increased 17.4 per cent to 18.92 lakh tonnes (lt) during April from 16.12 lt year-ago.
Sales of urea during April were 15.7 per cent higher at 12.19 lt from 10.54 lt year-ago, while those of MOP rose 58.3 per cent to 0.95 lt as against 0.6 lt and complex increased by 31.6 per cent to 3.58 lt from 2.72 lt year-ago. Complex fertiliser is a combination of nitrogen (N), phosphorous (P), potash (K) and sulphur (S) nutrients. But, sales of DAP dropped 2.7 per cent to 2.2 lt from 2.26 lt.
