Indian Potash does not expect supplies of Canadian potash to be affected by the diplomatic row between the governments of India and Canada, its managing director said Sept. 22.
At the time, it hoped to extend a contract with Canadian supplier Canpotex beyond the end of September.
India is a leading fertilizer importer to support its vast agriculture sector, which employs about half of its 1.4 billion people and accounts for nearly 15 per cent of its economy.
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Canada is a key supplier of potash to India. Indian companies last year signed a memorandum of understanding with Canpotex to buy up to 1.5 million tonnes of potash a year for three years, starting from 2023.
In April, Canpotex said it had agreed on a supply contract with Indian Potash for shipments through Sept. 30.
“We don’t expect any impact on our potash imports from Canada. Canpotex’s deals with Indian companies are commercial contracts. So far, it is a business as usual for us,” said Indian Potash Ltd. managing director P.S. Gahlaut.
“[The] Canadians have already signalled their willingness to extend the contract regardless of political upheavals.”
Reuters was not immediately able to contact Canpotex.
Ties between India and Canada deteriorated sharply after New Delhi and Ottawa each expelled one of the other’s diplomats in a dispute over the June murder of a Sikh separatist leader in British Columbia.
India depends entirely on imports to meet its annual need for about four million tonnes of muriate of potash (MOP), the government said in a statement last year. India also buys the nutrient from Belarus, Russia, Israel and Jordan.
Indian companies imported about 550,000 tonnes of potash between April and September this year, about the same as last year in the same period, Gahlaut said.
