Indian Farmers Fertilisers Cooperative Limited (Iffco) today said it will soon begin manufacturing a new fertiliser, which will have lower potash content at its Kandla unit in Gujarat.
"Keeping in view the highly unstable international potash prices, we have decided to manufacture a new-grade fertiliser at our Kandla Unit," Iffco Kandla Senior Executive Director L Murugappan, said in a statement.
"The production of this new fertiliser - Urea Ammonium Phosphate (UAM) - having lower input of potash as compared to NPK and DAP series, is likely to begin soon," he added.
The potash is a key ingredient in phosphatic fertilisers, but its prices in the international market have risen sharply from around $370 per tonne at the beginning of April to $497, an Iffco official said.
The industry has declared a potash holiday for this year in view of the unreasonable, exorbitant international prices, the IFFCO statement said.
IFFCO has also proposed to start manufacturing of a premium-grade fertiliser, Zinc Sulphate at the Kandla unit.
"We shall be setting up a 50 MT capacity Zinc Sulphate manufacturing unit at Kandla. The plant is expected to go on stream by August this year," Murugappan said.
IFFCO is a leading manufacturer of NPK fertilisers comprising nitrogen, phosphorous and potash, besides Di-Ammonium Phosphate (DAP), which require high quantity of potash as input raw material.