Iran plans to turn into major regional fertilizer producer

Iranian Deputy Oil Minister, Abdolhossein Bayat, said that Iran will become top producer of urea fertilizer in the Middle East within two years through doubling its production capacity, Iran Daily reported on Tuesday. Abdolhossein Bayat said that, currently, Iran's urea fertilizer production capacity is about 4.5 million tons annually. In the next Iranian calendar year (to start from March 21, 2013) , one of the largest production units of urea fertilizer would be put into operation. Marvdasht Petrochemical Complex, located in Fars province, will be launched with the capacity of producing 1.1 million tons of urea fertilizer annually," Bayat said, adding that two more urea fertilizer complexes are also under construction. He said that, private investors are also encouraged to launch new units and raise the country's urea fertilizer capacity to 14 million tons in the future. Food industries of majority of Asian nations, particularly in south Asia and Indian subcontinent, are tied to Iran's urea fertilizer, Bayat was quoted as saying. Afghanistan, Pakistan, Turkey, Syria, Sri Lanka, Malaysia, Mexico, Mozambique and India were major urea fertilizer markets for Iran in the past years, according to Iran Daily.