Industry Odisha Bureau, Sep 25: India’s fertiliser demand softened through the kharif season as poor rain hit several regions. Sales fell across major nutrients. Urea imports, however, more than doubled. Supply and demand moved apart.
Fertiliser Demand and Supply Move Apart
India’s fertiliser market pulled in two directions between April and August. Farmers bought less across every major nutrient category. Yet urea supply expanded through both imports and domestic plants. That divergence defines the kharif season so far.
Kharif Demand Loses Momentum
The sales slide covered much of kharif, India’s largest planting season. Farmers grow rice, pulses and oilseeds during this period.
Urea purchases fell 5.9% year-on-year. DAP, or di-ammonium phosphate, slipped 2.5%. NP/NPK complex fertilisers dropped more sharply, by 19.4%. Muriate of potash sales fell 13.6%.
Industry executives linked part of the weakness to poor rain. Rainfall deficiency and drought-like conditions affected several parts of the country. Executives said this weighed on farmers’ spending on soil nutrients.
Fertiliser Sales Volumes Show Uneven Weakness
Provisional data from the Fertiliser Association of India show the scale. The figures remain provisional.
Urea sales reached 15.82 million tonnes, against 16.80 million tonnes a year earlier. DAP sales stood at 3.38 million tonnes, down from 3.47 million tonnes. NP/NPK sales fell to 5.33 million tonnes from 6.61 million tonnes.
MOP sales for direct application reached 783,500 tonnes. A year earlier, they stood at 906,600 tonnes. Month-wise data show the weakness was not uniform across the season.
Urea Imports Move the Other Way
Urea supply told a different story. Imports rose 133.2% to 4.75 million tonnes during April-August. A year earlier, they totalled 2.04 million tonnes.
Domestic urea production also climbed 4.4% to 12.54 million tonnes. So availability expanded even as urea sales fell 5.9%. Sales, imports and production measure different parts of the market. The FAI figures do not explain the gap between them.
DAP and Complex Fertilisers Face Different Pressures
DAP and NP/NPK complexes followed another pattern. Both domestic production and imports declined for these fertilisers. High raw-material prices were cited as the cause.
Sulphur was the main pressure point. Its high prices were linked to the West Asia crisis. For these nutrients, weaker sales coincided with tighter supply.
Kharif Sowing Holds Relatively Close
The sowing picture offers an important counterpoint. Overall kharif sowing remained only about 2% below last year’s level. That gap is smaller than several fertiliser sales declines.
Planting held up better than nutrient purchases. This does not rule out rainfall pressure in affected areas. It fits executives’ view that farmers trimmed spending on soil nutrients.
A Split Fertiliser Market
The kharif season has left India’s fertiliser market divided. Urea supply grew strongly while its sales softened. DAP and complex fertilisers faced weaker sales and tighter supply together. MOP purchases also slipped.
Rainfall, input costs and supply channels are now shaping each nutrient differently.
