Fertilizer exports see strong growth

According to the General Department of Vietnam Customs, major markets of Vietnam’s fertiliser in the first 10 months of this year were Cambodia, Malaysia and the Republic of Korea. Cambodia was the leading market that bought 69.5% of Vietnam’s total fertilizer for export, or 328,600 tonnes worth US$104.9 million, up 53.87% in volume and 54.7% in value compared to 2016.

Meanwhile, Malaysia imported 122,500 tonnes, and the Republic of Korea bought 55,900 tonnes, up 105.42% and 57.72% respectively.

Other markets of Vietnamese fertilizer included Laos, the Philippines, Thailand, Japan and Angola.

Despite the strong growth in export, Vietnam still spends hundreds of millions of US dollar to import fertilizer.

The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD) reported that Vietnam imported 4.27 million tonnes of the product in 11 months at the cost of US$1.14 billion, up 15.5% in volume and 13.3% in value year on year.

China is the biggest source of 39.9% of total fertilizer shipped to Vietnam with 1.5 million tonnes worth US$392.1 million. The second largest fertilizer provider of Vietnam was Russia with 454,700 tonnes, followed by Belarus with 230,800 tonnes.

Other fertilizer exporters to Vietnam are Japan, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Saudi Arabia and the Philippines.

Explaining the rise in fertilizer import, Nguyen Duc Thanh, Vice President of the Fertilizer Association of Vietnam and CEO of the Petro Vietnam Ca Mau Fertilizer JSC said that not all fertilizers Vietnam bought were use for domestic use, but for NPK fertilizer production or exporting to Cambodia.