• Investors reap N987.18bn in sustained Yuletide surge

Following Federal Government’s efforts to boost the economy through export, a total of 314,460 metric tonnes of bulk urea fertiliser valued at N197.16 billion ($119.49 million) was shipped from Nigeria to Brazil in the last quarter of the year.

Findings indicated that between November and December, a total of 167,0000 tonnes was shipped out, while 146,760 tonnes were recorded in between September and October 2024. Data from the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA)’s Shipping Position indicated that five vessels were involved in the shipments.

The surge in the shipments was attributed to 17 per cent increase in Brazil imports in September 2024 as findings revealed that global urea market would reach $581 billion by 2027 at a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 2.69 per cent.

In 2023, the World Integrated Data Solution (WITS) revealed that Nigeria earned $474.56 million from 1.17 million tonnes of the fertilizer from Brazil as the price of the cargo soared from $335/tonne to 352.59/ tonne.

In the first half of 2024, three firms exported some tonnes of fertiliser valued at N842 billion ($563.1 million) with Indorama Eleme Fertiliser and Chemical Limited leading with $198.8 million; Starlink Global and Ideal Limited,$184.7 million and Outspan Nigeria Limited, $177.75 million.

Recall that the Federal Government had called for action against the dollarisation of locally produced commodities like urea, which is impacting negatively on fertiliser prices and agricultural productivity.

The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) had donated 2.15 million bags of fertilisers valued at over N100 billion to Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security to support domestic agricultural production rather than allowing the fertilisers to remain unused amid rising food inflation.

Also, the Minister of Agriculture, Abubakar Kyari, had called on Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPC Ltd) to permit Dangote Fertiliser and Indorama Fertiliser to purchase gas in naira to reduce the cost of fertiliser.

In 2023, Nigeria exported 1.29 million tonnes of urea valued at $501.85 million to Brazil as United States took delivery of 459,890 tonnes worth $124.98 million and Argentina, 246,977 tonnes valued at $87.55 million as Dangote Fertilizer Plant and Indorama-Eleme Fertiliser and Chemical Limited, have the potential to produce 4.4 million tonnes of urea annually.

Nigeria’s exports to Brazil have increased at an annualised rate of 19 per cent over the past five years, from $841 million in 2017 to $2 billion in 2022.

Although, exports increased from 2.54 million tonnes in 2022 to 2.58 million tonnes in 2023, leading a 2 per cent increase as there was no significant increase in urea exports due to a short supply of gas which formed the constituent material used in its production.

Currently, Nigeria has been ranked by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) as the 12th largest urea fertiliser producer globally at a production capacity of 1.62 million tonnes and the 16th largest exporter with a volume of 722,479 tonnes.

Data gathered from FAO explained that in 2019, India was the highest producer of urea with an annual output of 24.2 million tonnes or 33.77 per cent of the world’s urea production. Russia, 8.17 million tonnes; Indonesia,7.3 million tonnes; Pakistan, 5.8 million tonnes; United States, 5.7 million tonnes.

Russia was the largest exporter of urea with 6.98 million metric tonnes; Qatar, 5.6 million tonnes; Egypt, 4.6 million tonnes; China, 4.6 million tonnes; Saudi Arabia, 4.5 million tonnes; Oman, 3.3 million tonnes; Algeria, 2.8 million tonnes; Iran, 2.4 million tonnes; United Arab Emirates, 2.1 million tonnes and Indonesia 1.8 million tonnes.