Vietnam's fertilizer, pesticide import surge in 2 months

HANOI, March 11 (Xinhua) -- Vietnam imported 617 million tons of fertilizers worth 184 million U.S. dollars in the first two months of this year, up 17.9 percent and 29.7 percent on-year respectively, while spending 149 million U.S. dollars importing pesticides, up 12.1 percent.

In February alone, Vietnam poured 74 million U.S. dollars in importing 250,000 tons of fertilizers, mostly urea, Ammonium Sulfate, Potassium, Diammonium Phosphate and Nitrogen-Phosphorous-Potassium fertilizers, up 4.7 percent and 15.1 percent, respectively, according to its Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development on Monday.

The country also spent 60 million U.S. dollars importing pesticides in the same month, up 1.4 percent from January.

In 2018, Vietnam imported over 4.1 million tons of fertilizers valued at nearly 1.2 billion U.S. dollars, posting respective decreases of 12.8 percent and 6.8 percent on-year, mainly from China and Russia.

Meanwhile, the country's import of pesticides, mainly from China, India, Germany and Thailand, saw a slight drop of 2.2 percent in value against 2017, said the ministry.