BD to import 600,000 tonnes of fertiliser from Qatar, UAE

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Bangladesh will import 600,000 tonnes of urea fertiliser from Qatar and the United Arab Emirate (UAE) to meet the country's domestic requirements in the current 2011-12 fiscal, reports UNB. State-owned Bangladesh Chemical Industries Corporation (BCIC) will import the fertiliser in bulk from Qatar's state-owned QAFCO and the UAE's state-owned FERTIL. The total import would be executed under two separate state-to-state deals and without any tender. However, such deals need prior approval of the Cabinet Economic Affairs Committee. Industries Ministry sources said they have already moved a proposal to the cabinet body seeking approval to sign the proposed agreements with QAFCO and FERTIL. They expect the cabinet body to approve their proposal like in previous years. For the last couple of years, Bangladesh has been importing urea fertiliser directly from different countries under state-to-state deals, alongside its usual import from international market. Industries Ministry officials revealed that the country's fertiliser requirement for the current fiscal (2011-12) is estimated to be 3.0 million tonnes. Of this, the BCIC's factories would produce 1.0 million tonnes and it is planned to import the remaining 2.0 million tonnes. Of the planned import of 2.0 million tonnes, 800,000 tonnes would be procured directly from different countries through state-to-state deals, and the remaining 1.2 million tonnes would be procured from international market through tender. Of the direct import, on top of the 200,000 tonnes from the UAE and 400,000 tonnes from Qatar, another 200,000 tonnes of fertiliser would come from Saudi Arabia.