ISLAMABAD: Urea prices have decreased by Rs400 per 50-kg bag due to timely import and distribution of the product, an official of ministry of industries told APP on Monday.

He said the prices eased to Rs1,800 from Rs2,200 in the local market. The prices are likely to ease further after arrival of 500,000 tons of urea in coming days, he added.

He informed that as many as 700,000 tons of urea fertiliser had already been offloaded and distributed across the country to meet requirements of farmers in Rabi season.

Timely import and check on hoarding and black marketing will help maintain sufficient quantity of the fertilisers for Kharif sowing, he remarked.

He said that some local urea manufacturing units were not operating at their optimum level due to gas load management programme which resulted in demand-supply gap and price hike of the commodity in the local market. The imported urea was costing the country about Rs2,600 per 50 kg bag and the government was providing Rs1,300 subsidy per bag to provide relief to the growers to increase crop output, he added.—APP