State orders $82m fertilisers

The Romanian State has increased the fertiliser subsidy for small farmers by $18 million to $82 million and is therefore subsidising fertilisers in full. The chemical plant that stands to benefit the most from this programme is Azomures Targu-Mures, which might see inflows of $35 million by this summer. The emergency ordinance endorsing subsidisation for small farmers was approved last November and estimated the aid to be worth 2,130bn ROL ($64 million) for the entire country. The only thing the five chemical fertiliser producers selected for the programme had to do was wait for the enforcement guidelines to be published so that they could appraise how big a slice of the cake they would get. Recently published in the Official Gazette, the norms have not only set the distribution of the aid per each county, but also added more than 600bn ROL ($18 million) to the already existing amount in the programme. The amount of fertilisers allotted to this programme, 333,896 tonnes, will boost production of the specialised industry in Romania by more than 35%. This industry has been constantly declining since 1990. There are only five chemical plants left in Romania that can produce fertilisers in line with the required standards: Azomures, Doljchim, Turnu, Amonil and Sofert. ZF