The fertiliser industry has attracted the attention of the whole world due to the major role played by the industry in providing food security for all nations of the world.

That was the claim by Gulf Petrochemical Industries Company (GPIC) general manager Abdulrahman Jawahery in a speech to the 76th Conference of the International Fertiliser Association which concluded in Vienna, Austria.

"The changing patterns of this strategic industry in terms of production, consumption, prices and world trade are worthy of study and analysis as this sector has witnessed stable levels of supply and demand for fertilisers and their raw materials since the end of last year until today," he said.

"This pattern is expected to continue for some time to come."

He indicated that the reasons that contributed to this situation were the continuous demand for fertilisers and their raw materials to provide food security for the world.

The economic growth witnessed by most countries of the world, improvement in concern with public health and development of fertilising methods to achieve the optimum benefits of fertilisers and conservation of the environment were also key reasons.

He said the world consumption of fertilisers witnessed a major growth amounting to eight per cent during the period from 2005 to last year which equals seven million tonnes annually.

Forecasts indicate that demand for fertilisers will increase at an annual rate of around 2.9pc during the period from last year to 2012 which means doubling the annual rate witnessed in the last five years of the previous decade.

The world fertiliser consumption will reach around 173m tonnes this year and this rate will increase to reach 193m tonnes in 2012.

Jawahery said the factors that influence fertiliser consumption levels can include economic factors relating to per capital income levels so that whenever the income level rises the purchasing power is increased.

Also the prevailing weather conditions play their part in fertiliser consumption increase which results in increasing the agricultural land area, hence production of more crops, he added.

He said the policies and legislation introduced by some countries should not be overlooked, especially for protection of the environment through the optimum use of fertilisers in the soil.-TradeArabia News Service