By Laxman Kafle
Kathmandu, Mar. 9: Six months after the government started the process, Bangladeshi urea has finally started arriving in Nepal.
According to Agriculture Inputs Company Limited (AICL), about 900 tonnes of urea being brought from Bangladesh entered the country on Monday. “Altogether 21 trucks carrying 900 tonnes of urea from Kolkata entered at Jogbani customs in Biratnagar on Monday,” said Netra Bahadur Bhandari, managing director of AICL.
Likewise, around 2,500 tonnes of urea will arrive at the Integrated Check Post Birgunj on Tuesday. Similarly, additional 2,500 tonnes of railway rack has been dispatched from Kolkata Port Monday evening which will arrive in Nepal by Wednesday, he told The Rising Nepal.
The first consignment of 22,500 tonnes of urea which arrived in Kolkata from Bangladesh two weeks ago has started entering Nepal. The government decided to purchase 50,000 tonnes of urea from Bangladesh in government-to-government agreement. Of that, 22,500 tonnes have already arrived at the Kalkata port.
Nepal had initially discussed borrowing fertiliser from Bangladesh in September last year. Later, the government decided to buy it under a government-to-government agreement.
Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli on September 1, 2020 had requested his Bangladeshi counterpart Sheikh Hasina to provide 50,000 tonnes of urea when Nepal was reeling under acute shortage of fertiliser. Initially, the government had decided to borrow the fertiliser, but later it decided to purchase it.
In the beginning, the government had forwarded the process to borrow urea, but later it decided to purchase the fertiliser through government-to-government (G2G) model.
Nepal will receive the fertiliser from the supplier company at three points -- Bhairahawa, Biratnagar and Birgunj.
The transporting company, Gentrade FZE, UAE, which has been selected through the global tender, has been transporting fertiliser to Nepal by receiving it from the Bangladesh-based Karnaphuli Fertiliser Company.
Bhandari said that the fertiliser bought from Bangladesh has started to enter Nepal almost three months after the signing of an agreement between AICL and Bangladesh Chemical Industries Corporation (BCIC).
The agreement to purchase the urea was signed by Bhandari, Managing Director of AICL, and Mohammad Amin Ul Ahsan, chairman of BCIC, on December 17, 2020. He said that they have been requesting the BCIC to supply remaining 27,500 tonnes of urea at the earliest.
“The BCIC is still hesitating to provide the remaining amount of fertiliser even though it provided the first consignment of fertiliser to us. So, we are confident that the BCIC will deliver the said amount of fertiliser to us at the earliest,” he said.
The price of fertiliser has increased in the international market which might be a cause for delaying the supply, he said, however, the BCIC should supply in time as per the agreement.
“Around Rs. 870 million will be saved from the purchase of fertiliser from Bangladesh through G2G basis. The cost of urea being imported from Bangladesh is US$ 341.65 per tonne, including transportation cost at US$ 82.24 per tonne,” he said.
The price of fertilsier has reached US$ 473.60 per tonne in the international market.
Rajendra Bahadur Karki, information officer at AICL, said that there was enough stock of fertiliser across the country at present. He said that the AICL has been stocking fertiliser taking godwons in rent.
Nepal suffered shortage of chemical fertiliser since paddy plantation season due to different factors including the COVID-19 pandemic and the contractors’ failure to keep their promises.