Urea imports to fall in FY23, 7.4 mn tonne imported till March 24: Govt

India has imported 74.86 lakh tonne of urea till March 24 and is set to register a year-on-year decline this fiscal.

In a written reply to the Rajya Sabha, Minister of State for Chemicals and Fertilisers Bhagwanth Khuba shared the details of the import of urea in the last five years.

As per the data, the country has imported 74.86 lakh tonnes up to March 24 of the current financial year.

Urea imports stood at 91.36 lakh tonnes in 2021-22 fiscal, 98.28 lakh tonnes in 2020-21, 91.23 lakh tonnes in 2019-20 and 74.81 lakh tonnes in 2018-19.

"It may be learnt from the above table that import of urea has increased from the year 2018-19 to 2020-21, however, it has decreased in the year 2021-22 and 2022-23," Khuba said.

IFFCO commenced the commercial production of nano-liquid urea from August 1, 2021. Nano urea production stood at 290 lakh bottles (500 ml each) last fiscal and 452.11 lakh bottles up to March 21 this fiscal.