Thailand is one of the world's leading agricultural countries. We export many economic crops such as rice, rubber, cassava and various kinds of fruits and the Office of Agricultural Economics reported that in 2018, Thailand’s export on agricultural products value up to Baht 742 billion. However, surprisingly, Thailand has always relied on primary fertilizers from abroad. By wholly importing, the production of all chemical fertilizers formula is at a higher cost resulting farmer to buy more expensive fertilizer.

We are one of the few countries in the world that has large and abundant potash source, other than Canada, Russia, Belarus and Germany, that can produce primary potash fertilizer ( K) , 1 of the 3 main nutrients for plants apart from nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P). Other ASEAN and neighboring countries, which are as well agricultural countries, could not produce this primary potash fertilizer and therefore the whole region depend on imports from abroad. The demand in the ASEAN region is as high as nearly 10 million tons per year and if combined with countries in South Asia and China, the demand for imported potash fertilizers are almost 25 million tons per year, or approximately 40% of the global demand.

In Thailand, there are 700,000- 800,000 tons of imported potash fertilizer per year. Hence, if Thailand can proceed with potash production, we will be independent and the excess can be exported to neighboring countries. Thailand is located in the market center of the region, enabling faster delivery with smaller amount that allowing buyers to reduce inventory costs and increase cash flow flexibility. Based on these factors, Thailand will have high opportunity to compete with the other potash fertilizer manufacturers and move forward to become one of the leaders in fertilizer in this region in the future.