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ISLAMABAD: The Fertiliser Review Committee asked the provincial governments to take strict action against hoarders and those engaged in black marketing of fertilizers.
Federal Minister for Industries and Production Makhdum Khusro Bakhtyar chaired the high-level fertilizer review meeting to address issues related to the supply of crop nutrients.
The minister expressed his deep concern over the hoarding of an essential commodity for farmers and asked the provincial governments to take strict action against hoarders and those engaged in black marketing of fertilizers.
The meeting was attended by Minister for Energy Hammad Azhar and Minister for Food Security and Research Syed Fakhar Imam. Representatives of fertilizer manufacturers also participated in the meeting.
The minister stated that the government took all measures including uninterrupted supply of gas to fertilizer plants to ensure well-timed availability of urea fertilizer to farmers at affordable prices; but the government would not tolerate market exploitation by fertilizer dealers, he added.
He urged representatives of the fertilizer industry to blacklist such exploiters to smoothen the supply chain of urea countrywide. He said that the government is closely monitoring the distribution and supply of fertilizers to ensure soil nutrients are made available to farmers at affordable prices during rabi season.
He also formed the task force committee to monitor the situation pertaining to supply side, marketing balance and regional diversion plan to fill the gap between the supply and demand of urea across the country.
The meeting discussed the urea supply and demand position in the country. It was brought to the attention of the Chair that different dealers had hoarded 450,000 tonnes of urea and gained an absorptive profit of Rs50 per bag of urea.
The meeting was also told that owing to current stock of urea, the fresh consignment of 100,000 MT urea will be arriving in the first week of December in the country.
The fertilizer manufacturers commended the positive role of the government for ensuring gas supplies to urea plants for production enhancement across the country. They reaffirmed that fertilizer manufacturers would support the government’s measures to protect the farmers in the supply chain of soil nutrients.
