Efforts underway to further bring down urea prices: Asad Umar

ISLAMABAD: Federal Minister for Planning, Development and Special Initiative Asad Umar on Friday announced that there was no shortage of urea fertilizer in the country and efforts were underway to bring down its prices, ARY NEWS reported.

The federal minister on Friday chaired a meeting of officials from National Food Security and Research department to obtain a briefing on current status of the urea fertilizer availability in the country.

The officials briefed during the meeting that they have enough stock of urea and DAP. “There is no shortage of the fertilizers and fake news is being spread to give impression of rising urea prices in the country,” they said.

The minister said that plans were underway to further decrease the prices of fertilizers in the country. He also directed the department to keep a close eye at the prices of urea in the country.

In April this year, Economic Coordination Committee (ECC) approved import of one hundred thousand tons of urea in order to meet the fertilizer requirements of the farmers.

The decision was taken in a meeting of the ECC, held here today in Islamabad with Finance Minister Asad Umar in the chair.

The Ministry of Industries and Production was directed to review the price mechanism of fertilizer industry for ensuring provision of urea to farmers at cheaper rates.

The committee also decided to allow additional import of Urea in case of conversion of gas supply from fertilizer plans to power producers during the summer.