AgStar PLC’s Managing Director, Pasad Weerasekera, provides an insight into the host of challenges they face in procuring fertilizer and the impact it will have on upcoming harvests.

Key takeaways:

  • FX shortages in the banking system have hindered companies’ ability to import the country’s fertilizer requirement. Companies also face cashflow issues stemming from LKR 20 bn which the government owes to the fertilizer industry.
  • The LKR devaluation has resulted in fertilizer importers cash requirement to increase substantially to LKR 120Bn+, leaving banks hesitant to provide such large credit facilities
  • Farmers had a small quantity of fertilizer leftover for the 2021/22 Maha season, so the harvest did not see a major impact. The effects of the fertilizer ban and the inability of to import fertilizer will be felt mostly during the Yala season harvest and the next Maha season as the farmers were unable to source the required fertilizer for the season.

#SriLanka #Fertilizer #Plantation #Economy