ISLAMABAD, Jan 16: Federal commerce minister Abdul Razzak Dawood has said the government is determined to making fertilizers a major export commodity.

According to a press release, he was speaking to the country’s leading industrialists in the fertilizer sector here on Wednesday.

The minister said the government was trying to boost fertilizer production by evolving a simplified tax system and removing all unnecessary bottlenecks in making the commodity a key foreign exchange earner.

Mr Dawood said there existed a demand for the export of 200,000 tons of urea whereas the local fertilizer industry was able to export just 55,000 tonnes of this commodity. The minister advised the producers to redouble their efforts to meet the export targets on internationally compatible prices.

The producers of fertilizers unanimously agreed to the minister’s views about donation of 10,000 to 15,000 tons of fertilizer to Afghanistan as part of a $100 million aid package announced by the government for that war-ravaged country. This goodwill gesture will also help in developing a market in Afghanistan for the country’s fertilizers.

The meeting was also attended by officials of the finance ministry and the CBR.

Secretary (industries) Dr Akram Shaikh requested the producers of fertilizers to use the surplus gas for power generation.