Many rice fields are about to harvest the summer-autumn crop, and the orchards are also through the peak period of fertilizing. Only fertilizer prices are still high and tax policies to stabilize the market still have to wait.
The farmer is exhausted
The main fertilizer consumption season in the South usually lasts from May to June, so currently the purchasing power in this area is quite weak. Mr. Tran Van Xuan, a rice farmer in H. Chau Phu (An Giang), said that more than 2 months ago, farmers worked on the soil and then planted summer-autumn rice seeds, the demand for fertilizer was high, the price was high. . Now that demand is down, falling prices don’t make much sense either. With the current output price of rice and input costs, rice farming is not profitable. But if he doesn’t continue to do rice, he doesn’t know what else to do and has no income. “Seeing news on the radio saying that the world food price is hot, why is the price of Vietnamese rice still standing still, the price of fertilizer is still high like this, farmers are suffering,” said Xuan worried.
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| Another rice crop is about to be harvested, but fertilizer prices are still high and the tax policy to stabilize the market is still in the adjustment period.
CONG HAN |
That is also the mood of Mr. Nguyen Thanh An in H.Tri Ton (An Giang). His family’s summer-autumn rice field has been 80 days old and is in the flowering stage. It will take more than 20 days to harvest, so even if the fertilizer price is reduced further, it will not affect the production cost. “From the beginning of the crop to now, I still buy fertilizer at a very high price, from 830,000 to 850,000 VND/bag, this price has decreased slightly by 50,000 – 100,000 VND/bag compared to the peak. But apart from urea, other fertilizers such as DAP and potassium prices did not decrease. Because fertilizer prices are too high, farmers here use very limited. This year is also fortunate thanks to the good weather and heavy rain, so the climate is cool, the water source is abundant, so it is also “light” compared to the summer-autumn crop of previous years, but the rice is still good, “said Mr. An.
If the input price is high, the output will also be high, so where does that huge profit come from, while consumption has not increased? Why is it that in the general difficulty that farmers are weak, it is only difficult for enterprises to make big profits?
Downstream of the Hau River, Mr. Nguyen Van Hoang, a gardener in Ke Sach District (Soc Trang), lamented that this year’s fruit prices had dropped dramatically, the gardener had suffered losses while fertilizer prices were still very high. Instead of buying chemical fertilizers to fertilize the garden at the beginning of the rainy season as usual, this year he only used about 1/3 of chemical fertilizers combined with manure and other organic fertilizers to save costs. “The price of fruit was so low just now, I was dismayed. But after a season the tree is very exhausted, if not taken care of, there will be no harvest in the near future. But when it rains until now, the price of manure is still too high, and I am worried about long-term losses, so I don’t dare to use much because there will be no profit, “said Mr. Hoang.
Sharing with farmers’ difficulties, Prof. Dr. Vo Tong Xuan said: “The wish to win the price is one thing, but the reality is another. Currently, our rice price is also at a high level in relation to other countries such as Thailand, India or Pakistan… so it is very difficult to want to increase further. Importers will buy where there is more competition. Therefore, I hope the government has reasonable and reasonable policies and decisions to support and protect farmers fairly.
Huge profit business
Worth mentioning, the price of fertilizer on the Vietnamese market has many problems if you look at the correlation between the world and the country. In the Chinese market, the price of granular urea fell sharply, the bid price on June 16 was only 448 USD/ton compared to 1,060 USD/ton in January, 2022. Statistics of the Vietnam Fertilizer Association also show that the price of urea in the world tends to decrease. Specifically, the average urea price in January, 2022 was 18.7 million VND/ton, in May it was 16.45 million VND/ton.
According to calculations by experts, in NKP fertilizer, the urea content is about 15-20% of the total composition, if the urea price decreases by about 2 million VND/ton, equivalent to NPK price will decrease by about 400,000 VND/ton. However, this does not happen with the domestic market, although the factors to reduce prices are there. Firstly, most of the raw materials for domestic fertilizer production depend on imports. Import prices fell, but domestic prices have not been reduced because manufacturers explained that they had to “wait for a delay”.
KIS VN Securities Joint Stock Company estimated, the revenue of the fertilizer industry in the first quarter of 2022 reached VND 30,925 billion, up 71.2% over the same period last year, while profit after tax reached VND 6,811 billion, twice as much 7.9 times last year.
Second is supply. Currently, there are over 800 large and small enterprises (enterprises) producing and trading NPK fertilizers, with a preliminary capacity of about 10-11 million tons/year, while domestic demand is about 4 million tons/year. five. With excess capacity and abundant goods, the price must decrease, but as mentioned above, the prices of fertilizers are still very high. This helps fertilizer production and business enterprises win big, despite their customers – farming farmers who are suffering heavy losses.
For example, in the first quarter of 2022, fertilizer production and trading companies achieved huge profits over the same period and many enterprises achieved unprecedented highs. Notably, like Petrochemical and Fertilizer Corporation (Phu My Fertilizer), the profit after tax in the first quarter was VND 2,126 billion, up 12 times over the same period last year, exceeding 125% of the whole year plan. That is, in just one quarter, this business has achieved the target of the whole year. Or like Ca Mau Petroleum Fertilizer Joint Stock Company (Ca Mau Fertilizer), profit after tax reached VND 1,518 billion, 10 times higher than the same period in 2021, the highest level in a quarter ever of the company. . Similarly, DAP -Vinachem Joint Stock Company (DAP Dinh Vu) made a profit of 136.5 billion dong, 3.5 times higher than the same period last year. Binh Dien Fertilizer Joint Stock Company achieved a profit of 176.5 billion VND, up 43% over the same period last year…
Prof. Dr. Vo Tong Xuan commented: “If enterprises do genuine business and have such great success, it is very encouraging and should be encouraged and encouraged. But explaining for the high domestic fertilizer price, these enterprises always say because input material prices are high and depend on the world market. If the input price is high, the output will also be high, so where does that huge profit come from, while consumption has not increased? Why is it that in the general difficulty that farmers are weak, it is only difficult for enterprises to make big profits? It is possible that they already have a huge reserve, so they benefit from the price fever, or businesses splash water with the rain to increase prices, have contracts to raise prices for profit, etc. Ministry of Industry and Trade, Ministry of FinanceIt is necessary to clarify to answer millions of farmers, to help transparent the market as well as to develop reasonable tax policies.”
Source: Chi Nhan