1. Fertilizers
in Vietnam
Tran Toan Thang
Central Institute for Economic Management (CIEM)
68 Phan Dinh Phung, Hanoi, Vietnam

2. • Pop=around 90 millions ;
• Transition, SOE domination;
• Reliance (70%) on cropping;
• Small cultivable land;
• Economic reform started
from the reform in
agriculture, 1975, 1986, 200
5;
• Rice production, 3.8
tons/ha (1990) to 5.53
tons/ha (2011)
• Critical change in fertilizers.
Background

3. Fertilizer: Four issues
1. Fertilizer uses and efficiency
2. Market Structure & Supply-side issues,
3. The Pricing Environment, and
4. Cross Border Trade Issues

4. 1. Fertilizer use and efficiency
0.0
2.0
4.0
6.0
8.0
10.0
12.0
14.0
16.0
1990 1995 2000 2005 2010
6.5 7.3 8.4 8.4 8.6
1.6
1.9
2.1 2.4 2.6
0.7
0.9
1.5 1.6 2.0
0.3
0.3
0.6 0.8
0.8
Fruit Industrial crop Other_anual Grain
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
0
500
1000
1500
2000
2500
3000
3500
1970 1980 1990 2000 2010 2011 2012
Fertilizer Use ('000 tons nutrient)
Rice (ton/ha)
Maize (ton/ha)
Coffee (ton/ha)
Tea yield

5. 1. Fertilizer use and efficiency (cont.)
0
2000
4000
6000
8000
10000
12000
2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 est. 2013 (for.)
Kali SA Phosphate DAP NPK Ure
Fertilizer use by products (thousand tons)
Sources:
MARD
report, 2
012
Item
2006 2008 2010
North Center South North Center South North Center South
Urea 209 184 183 223 189 168 209 198 162
SSP 362 214 111 431 216 127 400 207 137
Potash 113 92 81 116 96 78 119 86 83
NPK 367 212 165 441 188 151 514 245 193
Fertilizer use for rice (kg/ha)

6. 1. Fertilizer use and efficiency (cont.)
1. Remarkable change in intensity
over 20 years, though recently
slowdown
2. More balanced use
3. Substantial different use of
fertilizer by regions because of
- Regional agro-ecology
-Farm size

7. 2. Market Structure & Supply-side issues
1. Established companies
Before 1975
1976-2000
2001-now

9. 2. Market Structure & Supply-side issues
2. Supply structure
Photphat
1.825
mil.tons
4 SOE=100%
Urea 2.2
mil.tons
4 SOEs=95%
NPK 3.8
mil.tons
SOEs=46%
Private+FDI
=45%
DAP 0.95
mil.tons
1 SOE=35%
SA 0.85
mil.tons
Potash 0.95
mil.tons
100
%
100
%
65
%
9%4-5%
9%

10. 3. Pricing
1. Mixing between gov. controll and free market price
• Before 1990 fertilizers’ prices were controlled by the gov.
rather cheap and planning distribution
• Since 1990s, stabilization program, due to the gov intends to
support farmers.
• The Gov. stabilized the price by using reserved stock (up to
10% for some times) and stored by some selected SOEs.
Using the stab. stock only when there is remarkable price
changes
• Since 2013, only urea and NPK is in the list of stabilized
products

11. 3. Pricing
2. Price registration: fert. compalies has to registere their output
prices to MOF. This policy is less effective.
3.Subsidized through input cost, decreasing recently. Farmers do
not get the subsidy, because the price is more or less similar
imported price, even higher for some cases
4. Price adhere to the international price
0.0
100.0
200.0
300.0
400.0
500.0
2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012
Import Price of Urea World Price of Urea
0.0
100.0
200.0
300.0
400.0
500.0
600.0
700.0
800.0
900.0
1000.0
Price of Imported DAP Fertilizer
World DAP Fertilizer Price

13. 4. Conclusive remarks
1. Evidence of fertilizer over used.
2. Quick expansion of production capacity
3. Pricing is mixed and complicated
4. Subsidy is not to the targeted group and reaped by
the producer
5. Import relied on China market
6. Export to Campodia, and FDI outflow

14. Thank you!