Related costs ‘pushed up fertiliser price’

Press, 3 April 1980, Page 9

Related costs ‘pushed up fertiliser price’

The increase in the price of superphosphate by $l4 a tonne resulted from the increased cost of rock phosphate and transport, said the marketing manager •of Ravensdown Fertiliser ' Co-operative, Ltd (Mr A. A. Duncan). The increase s the first since the beginning of August. It has been approved ahead of the price review normally done in July. u Another price rise may be ' expected . about the middle of the year because of the increased costs of transport and the loading of sulphur and the price of the raw material. On March 31, the day before the price rise, sales from Ravensdown’s works at Hornby reached a record of nearly 3000 tonnes, said the sales manager (Mr M. - ,S. McGeorge).. . <■.

The works had been very busy since the middle of the last week in February. Mr Duncan said the new prices for superphosphate from works in the circulation area of “The Press” were: — Hornby: increase of $14,15. a tonne making the new net retail price to the user $78.10 a tonne. Seadown: increase of $14.10 a tonne (new net price, $77.25). Richmond (Nelson): increase of $14.15 per tonne (new net retail price $78.40). ; The net prices are those after which the fertiliser subsidy, reduced to $l5 a tonne from $32 in the last Budget, has been deducted. Mr Duncan said that all prices of products based on superphosphate would be affected proportionately- ■