Realizing the shortage of urea for upcoming Rabbi season 2008-09, the Ministry of Food, Agriculture and Livestock has signed another agreement with Saudi Arabia, according to which Pakistan would import 150,000 tons of urea from at the end of this month. The agreement materialized during a recent meeting of MINFAL Secretary Ziaur Rehman with Saudi Arabia officials. Before signing this agreement, Pakistan also signed another agreement on providing urea worth $133 million to Pakistan. The last consignment of this agreement had arrived at Karachi port and would be immediately distributed across the country. There was sufficient quantity of urea in the country but the prices of urea started rising in the international market and reached $800 per ton though the price in Pakistan remained below $200 per ton. This huge price difference triggered smuggling of the commodity coupled with hoarding by the local dealers. Earlier, Federal Minister for Foreign Affairs Shah Mahmood Quraishi said the country will provide agricultural land to Saudi Arabia and United Arab Emirates. He said Arab countries have been offered agricultural land on large scale, so that they could build up big farms. Pakistan was holding talks with the Saudi government for obtaining crude worth about $6 billion on deferred payments.
