Due to tight supply during the kharif sowing season, India's fertilizer imports rose by 5% to 4.85 million tons from April to July in the 2025-26 fiscal year. Imports of urea and diammonium phosphate soared, while those of potash declined. With domestic production insufficient, it is expected that increased government tenders and subsidies will drive imports higher in the coming months.
Compared with the same period of the previous fiscal year, fertilizer imports - including urea, diammonium phosphate, NPK and potash - rose by more than 5% to 4.85 million tons from April to July in 2025-26.
With the increase in demand during the kharif sowing season, the government accelerated imports in July. It was reported that there were shortages of urea and diammonium phosphate in some regions. As China eases restrictions on fertilizer exports, imports are likely to increase further in the coming months.
In the first four months of the current fiscal year, imports of diammonium phosphate, urea and NPK rose by 35%, 22% and 22% respectively, reaching 1.98 million tons, 1.24 million tons and 1.26 million tons. However, imports of potash fertilizer dropped sharply by 67% to 350,000 tons compared to the same period last year.
During the April-June period of the current fiscal year, fertilizer imports declined by 16.29% to 3.03 million tons, mainly due to geopolitical reasons that greatly affected fertilizer imports.
Of the total annual consumption of 60 million tons of fertilizers, 10 million tons are imported.
Officials said that 87% of the total consumption of 35 million tons of urea is domestically produced.
However, about 60% of the annual consumption of 10-11 million tons of diammonium phosphate in India has to rely on imports. Moreover, domestic production of diammonium phosphate depends on raw materials mainly imported from Senegal, Jordan, South Africa and Morocco. Potash fertilizer is completely dependent on imports.
India has signed a long-term agreement to import about 2 million tons of fertilizers annually from Russia, Israel, Belarus and Jordan. Meanwhile, the increase in kharif crop sowing has led to an increase in urea consumption, prompting the government to import key soil nutrients as early as possible. Entities such as the National Fertilizer and Indian Potash have tendered for the import of 2 million tons of urea each, as the inventory of key soil nutrients supplied to farmers at highly subsidized prices has sharply declined. Due to the increase in global fertilizer prices, the fertilizer subsidy for the current fiscal year has been revised from the budget estimate of 16.8 billion rupees to 19.1 billion rupees. For the fiscal year 2025-26, a subsidy of 16.7 billion rupees has been allocated for fertilizers, which may be revised due to the increase in global prices of diammonium phosphate, urea and potash fertilizer.
