Russia is considered the world’s largest supplier of rare MOP fertilizers. This fertilizer is also available in mines in Canada and Belarus. MOP fertilizer is also available in some Middle Eastern countries but in smaller quantities.
At the end of last February, the price of MOP fertilizer began to rise after Russia faced Western sanctions because of its war with Ukraine.
At that time, Bangladesh hastily signed a state contract with Canada to buy 500,000 tons of MOP fertilizer per year. Under the agreement, procurement of fertilizers worth the first year has been completed.
According to the Ministry of Agriculture, Bangladesh needs 6.6 million tonnes of urea and non-urea fertilizers every year.
sharp drop in prices
The per kg import cost of urea in FY 2020-21 was Rs 32, TSP Rs 33, MOP Rs 23 and DAP Rs 37. Based on expenditure, the government provided subsidies of about 80 billion taka at the end of the year.
In the next financial year 2021-22, the government had to spend an additional Tk 200 billion on fertilizer purchase. The total expenditure rose to around Tk 280 billion.
Compared to the latest prices of the average procurement price for the financial year 2021-2022, the current price of urea has decreased by Tk 33, TSP by Tk 20 and DAP by Tk 22 per kg. However, there has been an increase of Rs 15 per kg in the price of MOP as compared to the average price of the last financial year.
Syed Mehboob Khan, additional secretary, cabinet division, said Wednesday’s meeting of the purchase committee approved the proposal of the agriculture ministry to buy a total of 100,000 tonnes of MOP fertilizer from Canada.
Syed said the cost of procuring MOP fertilizer during the last phase was $679.65 per tonne, but this time it has come down to $655.30.
[Writing in English by Md Taif Kamal]