Amid shortage of diammonium phosphate (DAP) fertiliser in the country, the revamped IFFCO's Paradeep unit is expected to increase DAP production up to three million tonnes in the next two years.
"We are aiming to step up DAP production to three million tonnes by 2010," IFFCO's Paradeep Unit Executive Director M R Patel told PTI.
After takeover of Paradeep plant from Oswal Chemicals and Fertilisers in 2005 at Rs 2,080 crore, the country's largest fertiliser producing cooperative, Indian Farmers Fertiliser Cooperative (IFFCO) has spent Rs 1,000 crore to revamp and resume production, he said.
After acquisition, the Paradeep Unit or Paradeep Phosphates Fertiliser Complex, produced only 30,000 tonnes of DAP/NPK and this gradually scaled up to 7.5 lakh tonnes in 2006-07 and 8.6 lakh tonnes in 2007-08.
"The production target for 2008-09 is 15 lakh tonnes and we have so far produced 7.90 lakh tonnes of DAP/NPK, a key fertiliser in agriculture," Patel said, adding that the unit has already made a profit of Rs 400 crore in the first nine months of current fiscal.
He further said the acquisition of plant closer to sea port has also helped the cooperative to save transportation cost by up to Rs 200 crore a year.
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With the expansion and acquisition, IFFCO's annual capacity of DAP/NPK has increased to 4.3 million tonnes. "With addition of Paradeep unit, IFFCO is poised to make the country self-reliant in indigenous phosphatic fertiliser by reducing dependency on imported fertiliser," he said.
DAP is produced in the country by IFFCO and Paradeep Phosphates (PPL). DAP demand is about 7.3 million tonnes. Of which, IFFCO produces 4.3 million tonnes and PPL 1.2 million tonnes and the rest is imported.