Image from the Daily Gardener
Kenya Comments
▪The optimum use of fertilizers is about 1.3 million tons while actual consumption is about 500-600K Mt. This is based on actual land use. But actual rates are limited by several factors such as price and weather.
▪There is the need to capture
maize and beans which are main crops in the crop calendar and FUBC reports.
▪The change of subsidy programme to electronic system will help capture the trickling of fertilizer products to Uganda which are mostly smuggled.
Fertilizer ProductionThere is primary production of SSP by KEL Chemicals Limited in Kenya but from 2018, there has not been any production of the fertilizer.ARM CementLimited,MEA Fertilizers, Toyota Tsusho Fertilizer Africa and Export Trading Company Limited are involved in blending of fertilizers in Kenya. They blend different grades of NPK for the local and regional market.
Table 1: Kenya fertilizer production 2016 -2017
HS Code Fertilizer 2016 Production 2017 Production
3103100000 SSP 3,000 2,500
There was no production of SSP in 2018
Fertilizer ImportsFertilizer imports to Kenya decreased from 855,045mt in 2017 to 626,418mt in 2018. A decrease of about 27%. It was also noted that fertilizer import volumes seem to increase significantly during election years (2013, 2017)
Table 2: Kenya fertilizer imports 2016 -2018
HS Code Fertilizer 2016 Imports 2017 Imports 2018 Imports
3105300000 DAP 207,973 261,939 252,199
3105200000 NPK 151,334 186,377 143,621
3102400000 CAN 111,654 198,806 100,950
3102100000 Urea 75,955 66,720 68,045
3105510000 NP Compounds 46,542 87,383 15,894
Others fertilizers 66,377 53,820 45,709
Total fertilizer imports (mt) 659,835 855,045 626,418
Blending companies imports Urea, DAP,and MOP to blend different formulations of NPK’s to sell to farmers. The blenders and other companiesimport finished NPK’s to sell directly to farmers. The table below show the various grades of NPK’s that were imported to Kenyain 2018.
Table 3: Kenya NPK import per volume, 2018
Fertilizer 2018 NPK Imports Major crops
NPK 26 5 5 86,041 Tea
NPK 25 5 5 + 5S 19,219 Tea
NPK 17 17 17 11,576 All crops
NPK 22 6 12 11,037 Tea and Coffee
NP 23 23 0 9,072 Maize, Rice, Sugarcane
NPK 25 5 10 5,999
Others 16,867
Total (mt) 159,811
Includes NPK, NP and PK
Fertilizer ExportsOfficial "re-exports"from Kenya are mostly sent to Burundi, Rwanda and Uganda.There was a 47% increase of fertilizer exports in 2018 as compared to 2017.
Table 4: Kenya fertilizer exports 2016 -2018
HS Code Fertilizer 2016 Exports 2017 Exports 2018 Exports
3105200000 NPK 24,514 36,618 44,437
3105300000 DAP 9,868 9,391 17,376
3102100000 Urea 12,570 5,214 13,497
Other fertilizers 8,986 4,535 6,666
Total fertilizer exports (mt) 55,937 55,757 81,977
