MCF to expand speciality fertiliser business

Mangalore Chemicals and Fertilizers Limited (MCF), a UB Group company and manufacturer of fertiliser, is planning to expand its specialty fertiliser business in the next couple of years. The company, which has over 50 new generation fertiliser products in its basket, plans to expand the business through its integrated nutrient management division, set up four years ago.

The division, which posted sales of just Rs 26 lakh in 2004-05, touch Rs 52 crore in 2008-09. This year, MCF aims to double its sales to Rs 100 crore and reach a level of Rs 500 crore in the next three years, Deepak Anand, managing director, MCF Limited, said.

MCF has set up a research and development centre at Hassan to develop new generation fertiliser. It has engaged agriculture scientists to develop the new varieties. The specialty fertiliser is generally low volume and high value business for the company as some of them are priced around Rs 500 per kg as against the normal urea price of Rs 4.60 per kg.

“The soils and crops are different in different areas and nutrition requirements are different depending on the soil condition. So, we conduct soil testing on behalf of farmers. Based on the tests we decide the mix of fertiliser suitable to their soil conditions. We are doing this through our integrated nutrient management division. The fertiliser and micro-nutrients are manufactured by us at various places and we also import some of them and market them in southern states,” he said.

H M Kshetrapal, senior vice president-marketing, MCF, said, “We are popularising the use of specialty fertiliser among farmers wherever necessary. Today, the soil in our country does not have all the 16 nutrients required to grow a plant. So, they need a special fertiliser for the crop. We wish to expand this business in Maharashtra this year and go all India in the next couple of years.”

Apart from the specialty fertiliser, MCF plans to import large volumes of diammonium phosphate (DAP), muriate of potash and urea, which is not available in the country. During February this year, MCF imported 90,000 tonnes of DAP for $36 million for sale in Karnataka. This was done to avoid the shortage of DAP in the state.