What Are the Options for India to Replace Russian Fertilizer?
Russia, the world’s largest exporter of fertilizers, accounts for around 20% of the global supplies of potash, writes Mimansa Verma at Quartz India. The war with Ukraine has compelled countries like India, which use potash, phosphate, and nitrogen-containing fertilizers, to now look for alternative suppliers. Especially since Russia might even consider a halt to fertilizer exports following Western sanctions.
“Losing Russia and their large export volumes would be a severe supply-side shock to the market,” Alexis Maxwell, an analyst at Bloomberg’s Green Markets said.
India imports four types of fertilizers: urea, diammonium phosphate (DAP), muriate of potash (MOP) and nitrogen-phosphorous-potassium (NPK). It subsidizes potash to make it more affordable for farmers. Its annual budget allocated about 1.05 lakh crore rupees ($14 billion) to its fertilizer-subsidy programme in February this year.
With a requirement of 3 million tonnes, India’s potash requirement is totally met by imports from Belarus and Russia.
Get The Newsletter Today!
