The National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) and the Ministry of Finance (MOF) jointly issued Management Methods on Commercial Reserves of Fertilizers, which will be officially implemented on September 1 and includes nine chapters regarding scale and time of reserves, requirements and selection of storage enterprises, etc.

Qualified firms voluntarily shoulder tasks of fertilizer commercial reserves, which involve three parts – potash fertilizers (reserved during the whole year), fertilizers reserved for being used after disasters (half a year), fertilizers reserved for spring ploughing (half a year). They will be responsible for their own profits and losses, and the funds required can be from loans. In addition, the government will provide fund subsidies.

Reserve scale will be confirmed according to domestic output, demand, import and export of fertilizers. Potash fertilizers will be reserved mainly for regions with convenient transportation or major grain/cotton producing areas; the second type mainly for disaster-prone areas and major grain producing areas. Distribution of fertilizers reserved for spring ploughing will be determined based on fertilizer consumption, output and transportation in different regions. Firms qualified to shoulder reserve tasks shall meet requirements on registered capital, sales volume, production, reserve capacity, etc.