ISLAMABAD: To meet the requirement of urea for winter crops, Minister for Industries and Production Makhdum Khusro Bakhtyar presided the meeting of weekly fertilizer review committee at this Ministry.
The meeting was attended by the top management of fertilizer industry, Provincial departments and senior officials of Petroleum Division. The meeting reviewed the projection of urea production, supplies and distribution to agri-pockets of the country.
The fertilizer industry assured of running their manufacturing plants with full capacity to meet the monthly needs of soil nutrients during Rabi season. The Minister commended the efforts industry to ensure adequate urea supplies and punitive measures by government departments against hoarders and profiteers resulting in significant reduction in urea close to notified price i.e. Rs 1768/bag.
He hoped that price sustainability would relieve the market stress over urea prices which had reached to a level of Rs 2500-2800/bag in past few weeks due to black marketing and profiteering by hoarders. He also noted that the pro-agricultural policies of incumbent government had not only scaled up domestic urea production but also resulted in lower urea prices as compared to the global prices; and this would reflect in increased crop production and farmer’s income.
The Minister directed that Provincial authorities to carry vigilant border monitoring to avoid inter-provincial supplies anomalies and rationalize urea supplies district wise for market correction. The meeting concluded with guidelines for Provincial departments and fertilizer manufacturers to identify the factors involved in black marketing and over-supply of urea to avoid any market stress amidst Rabi season.