On January 18, the National Development and Reform Commission held a press conference in January. Jin Xiandong, director of the Policy Research Office of the National Development and Reform Commission and spokesman, said that in 2021, fertilizer prices will rise sharply due to the flood of global liquidity, the sharp rise in international fertilizer prices, as well as the tight domestic energy supply and rising raw material prices. At present, the peak period of planting fertilizer in autumn and winter has passed, and the price of urea has dropped slightly, but it is still at a high level in the same period in the past 10 years. The prices of diammonium phosphate, potassium chloride, and ternary compound fertilizer have also increased significantly year-on-year.

Since the second half of last year, the National Development and Reform Commission, together with relevant departments and units, has established a working mechanism for chemical fertilizer supply and price stability, and carried out a series of work to ensure supply and price stability. In terms of production, we will ensure the supply of coal, electricity and gas for chemical fertilizer production, and guide local governments to set up special work classes to ensure that key chemical fertilizer enterprises can produce at full capacity. Through these measures, the output of chemical fertilizer has increased recently compared with the same period last year. Take urea as an example. According to scheduling, urea production has increased year-on-year for 4 consecutive weeks recently. Among them, the daily output of gas-made urea is about 30000 tons, a substantial increase of nearly 140 year-on-year. In terms of circulation, in recent years, the supply and marketing cooperative system has given full play to its role as the main channel for the circulation of agricultural materials, actively carried out production and marketing docking with key upstream production enterprises, increased the intensity of fertilizer preparation, and the inventory continued to increase compared with the previous period. In terms of reserves, the national spring farming fertilizer reserves are being stored in an orderly manner as required, and will be put on the market between March and May this year according to the start-up time of spring farming in various places. In addition, this year to add a certain scale of summer fertilizer temporary reserves, will be in place before the end of February.

Jin Xiandong said that considering all aspects of the situation, the supply of chemical fertilizer for spring ploughing this year is guaranteed, but considering that it is more difficult for production costs to fall further sharply, it is expected that the price of chemical fertilizer for spring ploughing may still run at a high level. In the next step, the National Development and Reform Commission will give full play to the role of the working mechanism of chemical fertilizer supply and price stabilization, strengthen departmental collaboration and consultation, strengthen industry operation monitoring, ensure the supply of chemical fertilizer production factors such as coal, electricity, natural gas, and sulfur, and further exert import and export adjustments and reserves. The positive role of throughput in maintaining supply and price stability in the fertilizer market. At the same time, we will vigorously promote the reduction and efficiency of chemical fertilizers, guide farmers to use fertilizers scientifically, take multiple measures to ensure the supply and price of chemical fertilizers this winter and next spring, and make every effort to protect farmers' enthusiasm for growing grain, and effectively consolidate the foundation for a bumper summer grain harvest.

(Source: Sinochem New Network)