Minister of Industry and Foreign Trade Tarek Qabil issued a decree to amend the fee to be issued on nitrogen fertilizers, decreasing it from EGP 400 per exported tonne to up to EGP 50 for one year.
Qabil said the decree aims at achieving balance in the fertilisers market in Egypt through the development of a comprehensive system aimed primarily at providing the necessary amounts for surplus farmer and export quantities to overseas markets.
Qabil added that this decree was studied carefully, taking into consideration the decline in world prices for nitrogen fertilisers and the high cost of production in the domestic market due to rising energy prices, in addition to the inability to save gas during the last period.
The studies further took into consideration the pressures faced by the companies producing nitrogen fertilisers, due to lack for gas, which is used as basic material in the fertilisers industry, therefore decreasing exports.
The minister noted that the quantities of nitrogen fertilisers decline from more than 4m tonnes during the period from October 2013 until October 2014 to reach less than 3m tonnes during the same period of fiscal year (FY) 2014/2015.
Therefore, exports significantly and continuously declined from about 3m tonnes during the same period in FY 2012/2013 to around 1.9m tonnes in FY 2013/2014, to reach about 780,000 tonnes during the same period of FY 2014/2015, Qabil added.
