Despite importing 700,000 tonnes of urea, the country is still facing shortage of 260,000 tonnes of the commodity for Rabi season. A senior official in Federal Ministry for National Food Security and Research told APP on Monday that the government is keen to produce urea from the local resources. "The government wants to ensure adequate supply of urea on fair price to the farmers of the country for Rabi season," he added.
He said that the government had also taken serious notice of increasing price of the commodity which has been increased from Rs 790 per bag in January 2011 to Rs 1,790 in November. This increase in price is due to increasing demand and supply gap in the country.
"The Economic Co-ordination Committee (ECC) has approved, few days earlier, the proposal forwarded by ministry of industry to import 700,000 tonnes of Urea to meet the increasing demand for Rabi season," he added. He said that despite this big import of the commodity the country is still facing shortage of 260,000 tonnes of urea which will be met through the local urea producing companies. In this regard, a meeting is expected to be held between ministry of petroleum and fertiliser producing companies for the supply of uninterrupted gas to meet the shortage.