Urea market in 2013 will witness a fierce competition as supply outstrips demand. Reporter of Investment Review Newspaper had an interview with Mr. Nguyen Hong Vinh, Deputy Director of Petrovietnam Fertilizer and Chemicals Corporation (PVFCCo)on how to face to new challenges.

With a surplus of domestic urea production, there will probably have a fierce competition on local market in the near future. What are the advantages of PVFCCo in order to maintain its market share on domestic market?

It can be said that the biggest advantage of PVFCCo is human factor. With a team of over 1,900 members of staff who have been trained methodically, dedicated to work, professional and united, it has created an overall strength to make important contribution to the success of our PVFCCo today. After that, in almost 10 years of operations, PVFCCo with brand name of Phu My Fertilizer and its slogan “For bountiful harvests” has become very familiar to farmers over the country.

In addition, DPM plant has always been operated in stable and safe condition. In the near future, the Company will keep implementing and improving projects that heighten production capacity, operations and repair of Phu My Fertilizer Plant, successfully conducting major maintenance and repair of the plant, remaining optimal output as well as improving and heightening product quality.

Another strength of PVFCCo is the logistics and distribution system that has been improved with the addition of transshipment terminals in key markets. This system is able to control products at consumption areas, implement policy of direct sales to approach local farmers, regulate domestic fertilizer market and prevent counterfeits and low quality products in order to minimize losses to farmers.

It is forecast that, in 2013,the country will admit about 200,000tons of urea production. How about the exporting trend of the Company?

In 2012, PVFCCo exported to Cambodia 18,000 tons of urea. Cambodian branch has been in contracts with business agents for gradually developing and improving distribution system on this market.  

In 2012,there was1,500 tons of Phu My Fertilizer exported to Myanmarfor a trial in addition to the establishment of representative office in here.

PVFCCohas also placed its first steps to penetrate other markets like Thailand, Philippines, Malaysia…The total export was estimated to reach 100thousand tons of fertilizer.

In2013, PVFCCo focuses on consolidating product distribution through its branch in Cambodia andrepresentative office in Myanmarwith a commitment to long-term cooperation with international distributors in order to effectively ensure all the consuming targets of fertilizer products ofPVFCCo.

Does the presence of Ca Mau Fertilizer Plant make any concern about competition to PVFCCo; and how about the intend of purchasing shares of Ca Mau Fertilizer, Sir?

The fact that Ca Mau Fertilizer Plant was put into operations has significantly reduced the local market dependence on imports. Phu My Fertilizer has its place on the market for nearly 10 years by creating its reputation brand name trusted by farmers. Therefore, the objectives of Phu My Fertilizer are to maintain our share on domestic market, develop international market as well as further develop new and dedicated urea productsto meet farmers’ demands. .

Investment plan to Ca Mau Fertilizer project passed on 27 April 2012 by General Shareholders Meeting of PVFCCo is just a guideline and needs to get approval from shareholders due to big value of transactions…. Specific plan depends on the governance and management units. In the future, when Ca Mau Fertilizer is equitized, PVFCCo will consider the investment opportunities if the conditions allows.

It is known thatPVFCCo also plans to invest in high quality NPKplant and ammonium nitrate manufacturer. What is current situation of the investment plan, Sir?

PVFCCo keeps pursuing the NPK plant project. PVFCCo is working with domestic and international reputable manufacturers to provide the market with NPK Phu My products.

The combination project of NH3 – Ammonium nitrate is a big investment project with the feasibility study is expected to be completed this year.

How does PVFCCo implement the tendency of building up appropriate production processes to reduce loss of fertilizer for a sustainable development direction with low costs but high efficiency for farmers? 

Although PVFCCo has started offering technical supports to farmers at the very beginning when our products initially appeared on market, it’s just particularly become strong since 2010. This program has been implemented nationwide and expanding to Cambodia. PVFCCosupported material costs and coordinated with specialized units through this program to transfer advanced production techniques in order to reduce inefficient use of fertilizerwhich usually caused wasting and environmental pollution and improve productivity and quality of agricultural products. Some implementation methods are: organizing Fieldwork conference and performance on sample fields or gardens with hundreds of samples/year. Such the direct instruction by visual methods is very effective to farmers and will keep being implementing in the future.