Indian fertiliser firms to skip IFA annual meet in Doha

PRESS TRUST OF INDIA
Posted: Thursday, May 10, 2012
New Delhi: The Indian fertiliser industry has decided not to attend the annual meet of global industry body International Fertiliser Industry Association (IFA) to mark a protest against suppliers using the forum to promote their own agenda.
The annual conference of IFA is scheduled to take place in Doha (Qatar) during May 21-12, 2012.

“Fertiliser Association of India (FAI) has informed the ministry through a letter that they will not attend the IFA annual event in Doha to protest the attitude of the global suppliers who are using the forum to forward their own agendas,” a fertiliser ministry official said.

The industry claimed in the letter that global suppliers of key fertilisers and raw materials like phosphoric acid, potash and di-ammonium phosphate (DAP) are converting IFA’s forum into their own club and the step taken by FAI is to protest against such tactics, the official added.

India is one of the world’s biggest buyers of key fertilisers like urea, DAP and potash.

The country imports about about 6 million tonne each of potash and urea, and 7 million tonne of Di-ammonium Phosphate (DAP) every year. When contacted FAI director general Satish Chander confirmed the development.

“Indian companies have decided not to attend IFA’s global conference except the meetings of the executive committee and executive management group. The decision has been taken to prevent any change in the governance of IFA to sub serve the interest of the suppliers only,” he said.

Last month, FAI, in order to check alleged ‘unfair trade practices’ by global suppliers of phosphoric acid, had said that it will set up a group to decide the price at which this key input used in making fertilisers shall be bought.