DISTRIBUTION OF FERTILIZERS BY THE EUROPEAN COMMISSION IN 2004

In 2004, the Food Security Unit of the European Commission granted the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea €8 million for the delivery and distribution of urea fertilizer.

The tender for the fertilizer was launched in January 2004 and awarded to Elsingor S.A. in March. A low US Dollar exchange rate to the Euro partially compensated the increase of the urea price recorded in the region and allowed the EC to purchase 46,437.80 mt of fertilizer.

32,507.80 mt of urea will be shipped to Nampo Port, with the remaining 13,930 mt being shipped to Haeju Port. The distribution plan for the fertilizer takes into account the proportion of the lands cultivated in rice and maize of the two recipient Provinces of South Hwanghae (143,126 ha) and South Pyongan (129,325 ha). All data regarding the cultivated land was provided to the EC by the Central Bureau of Statistic of Pyongyang last December.

 The distribution plan is detailed down to cooperative farm level and will be a useful basis for the monitoring of the distribution and the selection of pilot cooperative farms for the assessment of the impact of the fertilizer on the yields.  

Considering the total surface of the cultivated land (272,481 ha for both Provinces) and the total amount of urea allocated (46,437.8 mt), the average amount of urea per unit is 170.4 kg/ha. This quantity is considered environmentally safe and is in line with the guidelines suggested by the Ministry of Agriculture of the DPRK.  

The first shipment arrived in Nampo on 28^th March and all deliveries should be completed by the 14^th April. Bureau Veritas is in charge of the control of the goods upon arrival.  

The Technical Advisor of the Food Security Unit of the European Commission in Pyongyang will, by the end of May 2004, visit at least 15 cooperative farms in each of the two Provinces to carry out random control of the distribution and utilisation of fertilizer at cooperative level. Besides, those visits will be the opportunity to exchange technical information and ideas with the cooperative technicians and directors.

Source: EC FSU Munsudong, Pyongyang, DPR Korea. Date: 29 March 2004.