PetroVietnam Ca Mau Fertiliser Joint Stock Company (PVCFC) reported its urea fertiliser volume reaching 157,000 tonnes in the first two months, exceeding 17 per cent of its plan.

The company earned VND34.7 billion (US$1.5 million) in the two months, completing 69 per cent of its plan for the whole year.

However, PVCFC still faced difficulties in production and business in the last two months.

Statistics showed that about 300,000 hectares in the Mekong Delta was directly affected by saltwater intrusion from the beginning of the year.

Meanwhile, this is the main consumption market of PVCFC. These factors caused the demand for fertiliser to decrease by 15 per cent to 20 per cent.

In addition, the COVID-19 pandemic meant that agricultural exports to many major markets, especially China, were stagnant.

Despite difficulties ahead, PVCFC said that their businesses would have opportunities to boost fertiliser consumption in the coming months.

Specifically, rice exports in the past two months have increased by 27 per cent in volume and 32.6 per cent in value over the same period last year. Export prices increased 10 per cent over the same period and was the highest level in the past 12 months.

It expected that the increase of rice storage demand in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic will support farmers to boost production, thereby promoting fertiliser consumption.

Along with that, the sharp drop in oil price is also a positive signal to help the company reduce input costs for urea fertiliser production.— VNS