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Steep international costs, exacerbated by logistic issues and the worsening Russia-Ukraine disaster, are hampering authorities efforts to signal a fertilizer provide take care of different international locations.
The Philippines has been negotiating with fertilizer-producing international locations, together with China, Indonesia, Malaysia, and Iran, to arrest farm enter prices which have greater than doubled from a 12 months in the past.
However Fertilizer and Pesticide Authority (FPA) director Wilfredo Roldan stated that whereas Iran and China had agreed to produce the nation with fertilizer, there have been no ultimate offers.
“In precept, Iran suppliers are committing 300,000 metric tons of urea however no agency provide but on worth,” Roldan informed the Inquirer in a textual content message, including that the determine being quoted was 8 p.c decrease than prevailing worldwide costs.
Regardless of the discounted worth, the imported fertilizer would nonetheless be costly contemplating the account freight price, or the expense of delivering items from one place to a different, which ranges from $75 to $80 per MT.
“We hope the Russia-Ukraine points will probably be resolved soonest, in any other case [the] worth of agricultural merchandise would improve,” Roldan stated.
The Philippines doesn’t instantly import fertilizers from both Russia and Ukraine—which account for 18 and 4 p.c, respectively, of the entire international provide of urea—however the Division of Agriculture (DA) earlier stated the battle between the 2 international locations would tremendously scale back the quantity traded globally.
On the similar time, the federal government was learning a proposal from China amid a ban imposed by the latter on fertilizer exports to different international locations, together with the Philippines.
“China has agreed in precept to permit export quantity for [the] Philippines however till now they haven’t made a suggestion,” Roldan stated.
Logistics downside
Ranilo Maderazo, president of Planters Merchandise Inc., a company supervised by the DA, stated they have been trying to purchase fertilizers at round $600 per MT.
“We’re trying [at] final 12 months’s (October) provide of $600 to $620 [per MT] as a result of they could not agree [to] $350 throughout lean months (March-June). The issue is logistics,” he informed the Inquirer.
In accordance with Roldan, China and Indonesia are nonetheless delivering fertilizer in small portions. China, specifically, is supplying 1,000 MT to 2,500 MT.
He famous that the newest arrivals have been priced between $765 and $850 per MT in comparison with final week’s $975 per MT.
FPA information confirmed that, domestically, the common retail worth of prilled urea was P2,544.07 per 50-kilo bag based mostly on costs between Feb. 14 and Feb. 18. This was a lot larger than the P1,069.81 per 50-kilo bag across the similar interval final 12 months.
However, the common worth of granular urea surged to P2,548.61 per 50-kilo bag from P1,019.15 per 50-kilo bag year-on-year whereas ammosul price round P1,394.01 per 50-kilo bag from P604.84 per 50-kilo bag.
Roldan stated most farmers have been presently utilizing ammonium sulfate and fewer urea.
To cushion the affect of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on the nation’s meals safety, President Duterte permitted extra funds for a “Plant, Plant, Plant” program half two as international oil costs exceeded $100 per barrel.
The majority of the funding would go to fertilizer subsidies for farmers planting rice, corn, high-value crops, sugarcane, and coconut, in addition to city and peri-urban agriculture, manufacturing of animal feeds, enhancement of aquaculture and mariculture fishery manufacturing and meals mobilization, and the “Kadiwa ni Ani at Kita” advertising and marketing program.
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