Faced with lower production worldwide that increases the price of fertilizers, dependence that is already more than 60% in the country, farmers ask the federal government the reactivation of the ammonia production plant in the port of Topolobampo, in order to reduce purchases abroad and guarantee the supply of these inputs for food production.
Imports last year were 3.5 million metric tons, 20% more than in 2019, with a commercial value of 968.2 million dollars. Purchases went to Russia, China, the United States, Indonesia and Norway.
This was stated by the Secretary General of the National Union of Agricultural Workers (UNTA), Álvaro López Ríos, who said that the Secretary of Agriculture It only supports Guerrero in the delivery of fertilizers, and yet productivity does not improve. This year it was expanded to Morelos, Puebla and Tlaxcala.
And in addition to the fact that the federal government proposes less use of fertilizers, does not promote or encourage the production of biofertilizers.
According to FAO figures, in the world ranking, Mexico ranks as the 28th producer of fertilizers and in the 20th as an importer of these inputs.
In 2020, the national production of fertilizers registered an annual decrease of 7%, with a volume of 2.3 million tons, of which 44% were phosphate; 31% acid and 25% nitrogenous.
The value of the national production of fertilizers it was 18 thousand 660 million pesos. This was 1% less than in 2019.
In the same year, the total consumption of fertilizers was 5.7 million metric tons, which reflects a growth of 6.1% compared to 2019. Of this volume, 38.3% was covered by domestic production and 61.7% by imports.
In the first semester of this 2021 the advance of the production was of one million 150 thousand tons, with a value of 10 thousand 768 million pesos.
And imports totaled 2.2 million metric tons with a value of $ 775.4 million.
Regarding prices, López Ríos said that “in the national market they are at record levels since their average price shows an increase of 10.8% in the case of urea and 48.3% for diammonium phosphate compared to those that they prevailed last year ”.
“This increase is due to lower world production that increases the cost of imports of these agricultural inputs.”
And it is added that the stocks of the main distributors in the national market are decreasing due to the strong demand at the moment for the fertilization of the crops of the spring-summer cycle of corn, sorghum and beans.
Finally, he commented that in the current federal government, the agri-food sector lost support schemes in priority areas such as marketing, insurance and natural disasters.
“The most worrisome thing is the abandonment in the matter of Attention to Natural Disasters, without funds in the last 3 years, when it operated without interruptions since 2010”. He recalled that in 2018 he was assigned 3 thousand 866 million pesos.
In the case of Marketing Support, program that disappeared in 2019, the funds that were exercised in 2018 were 9 thousand 748 million pesos.
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“To reverse the abandonment to the field, a multidimensional long-term vision is necessary to ensure an income so that producers can remain in the sector,” said the leader of the UNTA.
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