The price of domestic retail fertilizers in Thailand in 2022 is more than double that of 2021

Thailand fertilizer consumption and import data

Over the past 20 years, Thailand’s agricultural economy has accounted for roughly 8% of GDP, with an annual output value of about 1.5 trillion baht. Recently, Dr. An, director of the International Trade Research Center of the University of the Thai Chamber of Commerce, raised serious concerns about the sustainable development of Thailand’s agricultural economy. The pressure on these two key production costs has become even heavier.

Taking the past 2022 as an example, the four major export-oriented agricultural products in Thailand, including rice, sugarcane, rubber and palm, use chemical fertilizers for more than 90%. Last year, the total expenditure on chemical fertilizers alone was as high as 200 billion baht. If you add 180 billion baht in labor costs, the total expenditure will be as high as 380 billion baht.

In this protracted Russia-Ukraine war, Thai farmers spent 70 billion baht more than the 130 billion baht in 2021 on fertilizer alone, and the domestic retail price of fertilizer in Thailand was more than double that before. According to official data, Thailand imported 4.2 million tons of fertilizer raw materials and finished fertilizers worth 103 billion baht in 2022, up from 5.67 million tons and 74.5 billion baht a year earlier.

According to the types of agricultural products, rice is the most used crop for chemical fertilizers, up to 41%, which is related to the 66.5 million Thai mu of rice fields in the country; followed by rubber 28%, palm 12%, sugarcane 7%, fodder corn 7% and pineapple 5% %.

In the first quarter of this year, Thailand imported 783,000 tons of chemical fertilizers, a year-on-year increase of 17.15%, worth 14.409 billion baht, an increase of 11.88%.

Although global fertilizer prices remain stable this year, their prices are still higher than normal. 21-0-0 compound fertilizer will be quoted at 6,600 baht per ton in March 2021, and will increase to 16,400 baht in 2022, and will drop slightly to 14,200 baht in 2023; It is 11,700 baht; the lowest for 0-0-60 compound fertilizer is 11,800 baht per ton, and the highest is 33,625 baht per ton.

It is estimated that Thailand’s total fertilizer imports this year will be between 4 and 5 million tons.

In terms of urea: the Middle East is Thailand’s main source of urea imports, of which 52% are imported from Saudi Arabia, 26% are imported from Qatar, 6% are imported from the United Arab Emirates, and the rest, 11% come from Malaysia and 3% come from China.

Thailand’s DAP mainly comes from China, accounting for 82%, 14% from Saudi Arabia, and 3% from Russia.

Potassium sulfate in Thailand mainly comes from Canada, Belarus, Germany and Israel, accounting for 46%, 26%, 20% and 8% respectively.