Despite the recent tension and conflict in West Asia, there has been no major impact on the supply of fertilizers in India. The Ministry of Chemicals and Fertilizers said on Sunday that out of 20 ships carrying fertilizers and raw materials for India, 15 have safely crossed the Strait of Hormuz and are heading towards Indian ports as per schedule. Among these ships, 8 ships are carrying about 3.32 lakh tonnes of urea, 4 ships are carrying 2.57 lakh tonnes of DAP and 3 ships are bringing 1.11 lakh tonnes of sulphur.
Five more ships will arrive soon
According to the ministry, five other ships are also going to leave for India. Of these, one ship will bring 0.25 lakh tonnes of ammonia and the other 0.45 lakh tonnes of urea. Apart from this, goods are currently being loaded on two more urea ships and one sulfur ship. The government hopes that all these ships will also reach India on time.
Arrangements for supply from new countries also
The government said that due to the conflict in West Asia, maritime traffic through the Strait of Hormuz was affected. However, due to timely planning, constant monitoring and better coordination, no major disruption in the supply of fertilizers was allowed.
To ensure supply, the government arranged urea from countries like Oman, Malaysia, Vietnam, Georgia, Nigeria, Russia, Finland, Egypt, Algeria, Turkey and Netherlands. Whereas DAP and NPK fertilizers were imported from Russia, Morocco, Egypt, America, Jordan, South Korea, Tunisia and Saudi Arabia through the Red Sea route.
Production increased, reserves also strengthened
Union Chemicals and Fertilizers Minister JP Nadda said that the West Asia crisis affected the global supply chain, due to which the prices and delivery time of fertilizers increased. Despite this, the Central Government has taken timely steps to protect the interests of the farmers.
According to the ministry, during the crisis the supply of natural gas to fertilizer plants had decreased by about 65 percent, but now it has completely returned to normal. Due to this, all the urea plants of the country are working at full capacity.
In the first quarter (April-June) of the financial year 2026-27, domestic urea production was 71.55 lakh tonnes against the target of 67.86 lakh tonnes. At the same time, DAP production also exceeded the target and reached 9.84 lakh tonnes. The production of NPK was recorded at 20.77 lakh tonnes and the production of SSP was recorded at 13.50 lakh tonnes.
Adequate fertilizer available to farmers
The government said that India has already prepared a stock of 197.56 lakh tonnes of fertilizers against its annual requirement of 383.9 lakh tonnes, which is more than 51 percent of the total requirement. The ministry says that due to adequate stock, increase in domestic production and imports from many countries, there is availability of fertilizers across the country. The government assured that every necessary step will continue to be taken to provide timely fertilizers to the farmers.
