Fertilizer decree saves jobs of Nitroporos SRL Făgăraş employees

362 workers of Nitroporos SRL Făgăraş could avoid being laid off, after the Minister of Agriculture, Ilie Sârbu, the Minister of Industry, Adriean Videanu, and the Minister of Finance, Gheorghe Pogea, have assured that next week will be issued an emergency decree which will subsidize fertilizer purchases by farmers. The ordinance will grant vouchers of 400 lei/hectare, which are only redeemable for fertilizer. Under these circumstances, there is information that the owner of the Interagro group, Ioan Niculae, has called back the directors of the chemical factories that he owns to quickly resume operation in the aforementioned companies.

The Interagro group had announced it would lay off 6500 workers because of the economic crisis and of the failure of the government to get involved in subsidizing the purchase of fertilizer, which had caused a drop in fertilizer consumption by Romanian farmers. Under the new circumstances, a number of these jobs will be saved.

The situation is not as rosy for another one of Interagro"s factories in the county of Braşov - Viromet Victoria - which has also announced the layoff of some 400 employees. The factory produces methanol, and its equipment lies inactive as the group awaits firm orders.

Lucian Cupu, the president of the Nitramonia Rompiro Union, says that agriculture in Romania is at the bottom of the ladder when it comes to fertilizer usage, even below Albania. Thus, if the fertilizer need was 150 kg per arable hectare, after 1990 this amount dropped to 19 kg per hectare of farming land and 30 kg per hectare of arable land.

"At the moment, because of the low consumption of fertilizer, of dropping prices on the foreign market and of competition from neighboring countries which buy their methane gas at prices far below our own, the domestic fertilizer industry is facing serious problems which in the end all boils down to the financial situation of the companies, which affects the condition of the equipment, salaries and so on ", a union memo said.