Agriculture
FERTILISER Producers and Suppliers Association of Nigeria (FEPSAN) has blamed the recent hike in the price of fertiliser on the high inflation rate across the world.
The Executive Secretary of FEPSAN, Mr Gideon Negedu, said this in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Monday in Lagos.
He said that the current inflation rates in the economies of the world had grossly affected the cost of production in the fertiliser sector.
“The current inflation rate has affected the cost of commodities across board and fertiliser is not exempted. “Everything has gone up.
“The fertiliser industry is not exactly immune to the high cost of products.
“What we have tried to do is to work with government to as reasonable as possible be able to give support to reduce the price of fertiliser.
“The current hike in the price of fertiliser is a function of many things.
“For instance, two of the major raw materials we use in the production of fertiliser are imported.
“And we do not have control over their prices, coupled with the depreciation of our currency.
“This exposes us to increased cost of production.
“What we have done is to engage the producer countries so that we get discounts on bulk purchase of fertiliser,” Negedu said.
He also blamed the Russian/Ukraine crisis for the increase in the cost of fertiliser production.
He said: “Increase in production cost has risen from about 20 per cent to about 300 per cent.
“This has never happened before.
“This increase started with COVID-19 pandemic and now the Russia/Ukraine crisis has escalated it.
“The major raw materials for fertiliser production are from Russia.
“We have signed an agreement with the Russian Government but as a result of this crisis, we cannot access the items.”
Negedu further said that the association had reached out to the Presidency to help it source the vital raw materials from Canada but hindered by the escalated price.
He said the group was also contending with the issues of Forex, transportation cost and other miscellaneous, which are factored into production cost.
“We have engaged the government and the concern is that it has made its support to the extent it could.
“It will be fantastic if support can be given, particularly in the area of raw materials.
“If we can subsidise cost at the fertiliser production level, then we will be able to help farmers meet up,” Negedu said.
He said that presently, the demand for fertiliser was going down because of its high cost. (NAN)
C.E
Tags: Fertiliser Producers and Suppliers Association of Nigeria (FEPSAN) Gideon Negedu
