India's first water-soluble fertilizer (WSF)
plant is all set to go into commercial production at Coromandel International's
Kakinada plant in Andhra Pradesh.
The 15,000-tonne-per-annum capacity plant has
been set up by a 50:50 joint venture between Coromandel, part of the Rs
17,000-crore Murugappa Group, and SQM of Chile.
Currently, India consumes about 70,000 tonnes
of WSF, all of which is imported.
“We will be initially focussing on
vegetables, fruits, cotton, chilli and sugarcane crops. Although our products
can be used for wheat and rice production as well, we will concentrate on these
crops as we expand our plant capacity,” Mr V. Ravichandran, Lead Director of
Coromandel International, told mediapersons here.
The joint venture entity, Coromandel SQM, is
currently conducting research to come out with crop specific blended water
soluble fertiliser products to suit the climatic conditions of India.
“We will be launching the speciality blended
products in the next three to five months,” he said earlier in January.
Coromandel has been marketing about 10,000
tonnes of imported water-soluble products in India. While DAP prices are about
Rs 38,000 a tonne (including a subsidy component of Rs 19,000) currently, the
water soluble products have a price tag ranging between Rs 60,000 and Rs
100,000 a tonne.
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