India Launches Tender For 1.7 Million Tons Of Urea, Locking In July Shipment Schedule
30 May 2026, New Delhi: Recently, affected by the ongoing geopolitical situation in the Middle East, global natural gas supply chain transportation has been obstructed, urea production capacity in multiple countries has been restricted, and international urea prices have fluctuated and risen. Coinciding with a critical window for agricultural preparation in India, as the world’s largest urea importer, India has officially launched a new round of large-scale international tendering for urea procurement, planning to purchase 1.7 million tons of urea, to guarantee supply for the upcoming rainy season crop sowing.
This procurement is fully handled by India’s state-owned leading fertilizer enterprise, the National Fertilizers Limited (NFL), which undertakes the government’s agricultural fertilizer import business. The company officially released a urea tender announcement on its official website this Wednesday, clarifying that the 1.7 million tons of urea procurement will adopt a regional import model, with 900,000 tons entering via India’s west coast and the remaining urea imported via the east coast.
Meanwhile, the announcement set a clear deadline, requiring that all procured goods must depart from loading ports before July 20, to ensure fertilizer materials arrive on time and connect with subsequent sowing work.
It is understood that core domestic crops such as rice, corn, and soybeans in India will begin concentrated sowing next month. The rainy season from June to September each year is the core agricultural production period in India, with concentrated and high demand for fertilizers.
Public data from the Indian Fertilizer Ministry shows that the total demand for fertilizers for rainy season crops in the country this year is about 39 million tons, while the current domestic fertilizer inventory is only 20 million tons, indicating a significant supply-demand gap. This large-scale import is a key measure to ensure the stability of agricultural production this year. India has long relied on international tendering to procure urea to fill domestic production gaps and meet agricultural fertilizer needs.
The core reason for India’s urgent increase in urea imports this time is the natural gas supply crisis triggered by geopolitical conflicts, which has directly impacted domestic urea production capacity. India’s urea production is highly dependent on natural gas, which is used as the main fuel for producing the core raw material, liquid ammonia; most of the country’s natural gas is imported from the Middle East. Affected by the obstruction of shipping in the Strait of Hormuz, the liquefied natural gas supply chain continues to tighten. In March this year, multiple South Asian fertilizer enterprises were forced to suspend production, leading to a significant reduction in domestic urea output in India and further exacerbating the domestic fertilizer supply gap.
Public industry data shows that nearly 45% of global urea sources need to be transported via the Persian Gulf shipping channel. The ongoing disturbance in the geopolitical situation has placed continuous pressure on the global fertilizer supply chain, and international urea prices have risen significantly since the outbreak of the conflict. Affected by this, the transaction price of India’s previous round of 2.5 million tons of urea tender procurement nearly doubled compared to before the turmoil, with import costs rising significantly and the pressure to guarantee agricultural supply continuing to increase.
Industry insiders analyze that considering the current time node, India’s current tender combined with the status of global supply chain tensions may further intensify the contradiction between supply and demand in the global fertilizer market in the short term, continuously pushing up agricultural fertilizer prices and increasing global agricultural production costs. As for India, the rigid demand for fertilizers during the rainy season farming from June to September is urgent, and it still needs to rely on large-scale imports in the short term to fill inventory gaps and ensure the smooth progress of grain production this year.
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