Demand for Dangote fertiliser has surged lately as the ongoing US–Israel conflict with Iran disrupts global fertiliser supplies, Bloomberg reports, quoting Devakumar Edwin, vice president of Dangote Industries Limited.

According to Edwin, demand has increased significantly because of shortages in the international market. “Demand has gone up substantially due to the shortage in the global market,” Edwin told Bloomberg in an interview.

It was reported that a major share of global fertiliser shipments typically moves through the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow waterway connecting the Persian Gulf to the Arabian Sea.

However, the conflict in Iran has effectively halted traffic in the corridor, limiting access to fertiliser exports from the region. The disruption has affected supplies of key products such as urea and ammonia produced in Iran, while also pushing up natural gas prices, a critical input for fertiliser production.

Dangote’s fertiliser facility, said to be Africa’s largest granulated urea plant, with an annual capacity of about three million tons of urea and ammonia, exports about 37 percent of its output to the United States and has previously said it aims to become the world’s largest exporter of urea within the next four years.

Africa currently imports more than six million metric tons of fertiliser each year, a costly dependence that weighs on agricultural productivity and exposes farmers to global supply shocks.

Last June, Aliko Dangote, president of the Dangote Group, unveiled plans to expand the $2.5 billion Dangote Fertiliser Plant. The expansion, which will significantly increase production capacity, aims to reduce Africa’s heavy reliance on imported fertiliser and strengthen the continent’s self-sufficiency in agricultural inputs.

Dangote said at the time that the continent could become self-sufficient in fertiliser production within the next 40 months.

Earlier, Dangote said that in the next two years, the company would be exporting almost 16,000 tons of fertiliser, which will amount to about $7 million daily revenue for the federal government.

Dangote announced this when he paid a courtesy visit to the headquarters of the Nigerian Ports Authority in Marina, Lagos, last year. He added that, with the export of fertiliser, the company would be the country’s major source of foreign exchange earnings.

“In the next two years, we will be exporting about 16,000 tons of fertiliser. When you talk about 16,000 tons of fertiliser, it’s about $6.5 million to $7 million in revenue that will be coming into the country daily. With our export programme, our company will be the major supplier of foreign exchange earnings in Nigeria,” Dangote was quoted as saying. (BusinessDay)