The price of fertiliser has gone up again, with a 50kg bag of ammonium nitrate now priced at between US$55 and US$70, up from US$37.
The price hike comes at a time when the product is in huge demand following incessant rains that have been pounding most parts of the country, resulting in heavy leaching of soil nutrients.
In a statement on Friday, the Zimbabwe Farmers Union (ZFU) bemoaned the increase in the price of fertilisers, saying it has increased the cost of production. The statement read in part:
There has been a significant rise in agricultural input prices, especially fertilizers to be more specific, nitrogenous fertilizers.
This has greatly increased the cost of production of most agricultural enterprises if not all.
Persistent rain the country is currently experiencing even increases the requirements of nitrogenous fertilizers as leaching increases.
In April last year, local fertiliser manufacturers said the shortage of foreign currency had hampered production.
They said the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ)’s foreign currency auction system was failing to meet their needs.