Fertilisers have gone through the roof; no country can sustain buying at this level: FM Sitharaman

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, speaking at the Munich Leaders Meeting, said fertiliser prices have "gone through the roof" and that no country can sustain buying at that level. By her account, a unit sold to the farmer at ₹300 costs ₹3,000 to import, with the government bearing nearly ₹2,700.Sitharaman said India is trying to increase domestic production of urea and phosphates, but that it will be a long haul. She said shipping lines and containers are hard to get and insurance risk premiums have risen sharply after Hormuz. India has created a separate shipping emergency fund to support the insurance cost of fertiliser shipments, she said.