Total fertiliser sales in August 2026 were almost 10.33 per cent lower than in the same month last year, totalling 6.51 million tonnes, as the monsoon continued to play truant, with the cumulative all-India rainfall deficit recorded at 16.3 per cent for August.
Though the uneven run is not fully reflected in overall kharif acreage numbers, which till September 11 were just around 1.45 per cent lower than in the same period last year and 0.72 per cent less than the normal acreage, which is the average area covered over the last five years, several experts and commentators said that more than total acreage, it is the per-hectare yields that will matter most from now.
The declining sales of fertilisers could also be a factor in the determination of final yields, but traders said the drop in sales could also be on account of excess stocking by farmers at the start of the season.
The fertiliser sales data for the month of August also showed that, item-wise, sales of urea, the most-consumed fertiliser in India, were around 4.21 million tonnes, which was 3.66 per cent lower than last year. While di-ammonium phosphate, or DAP, sales were marginally higher at 1.03 million tonnes in August 2026, compared with 0.98 million tonnes in August 2025, sales of muriate of potash (MOP) and other complexes were around 10 per cent and 34 per cent lower, respectively, in August 2026 compared with the same month last year.
When it comes to prices in the international markets, data shows that in August 2026 the average price of sulphur, which is a key ingredient in producing complex fertilisers, was almost 262 per cent higher compared with the same month last year, while that of ammonia was around 23 per cent higher.
Phosphoric acid and rock phosphate rates were around 18 per cent and 0.52 per cent higher, respectively, in August 2026 in the international markets compared with August 2025.
All this would have made domestic production of complex fertilisers, including DAP, costlier in August 2026 compared with August 2025, as India is almost entirely dependent on other countries for the supply of raw materials that go into making fertilisers.
The price data also showed that the average international price of imported urea was around 23.54 per cent lower in August 2026 compared with August 2025 and substantially lower than around $950 per tonne in May 2026 (on a free-on-board basis) during the peak of the West Asia crisis.
This could have a significant impact on India’s subsidy calculations for FY27.
In fact, when it comes to urea, the average international price of $406 per tonne recorded in August 2026 is the lowest in the last nine months (since $409 per tonne recorded in November 2025) and around 9.17 per cent lower than in July 2026. India imported close to 0.70 million tonnes of urea in August 2026, according to government data.