To access the Chinese Portal 中文

Expanding the relationship between the Chinese fertilize industry and the global fertilizer community

Recognizing the growing importance of China in global fertilizer markets, IFA launched in 2004 the China initiative.Because IFA relies on the fertilizer industry itself as the most knowledgeable source of information about the sector, the initiative has focused on bringing more Chinese members into the Association in order to imrpove the global industry's understanding of Chinese fertilizer supply and demand, as well as the policy and resource questions impacting them.

The main objectives of this initiative are to:

• raise IFA's profile and expand IFA’s membership in China on a long-term basis,
• facilitate easy access to reliable market information on the Chinese fertilizer industry,
• promote the sustainable development of the fertilizer and agricultural sectors in China, through the sharing of best technological and agricultural practices and participation in benchmarking programmes, and to
• foster market transparency and exchanges of information on fertilizer production, trade and consumption among IFA members.

The membership benefits are supported by the translation in mandarin of documents about IFA’s activities and its outlook reports that are distributed to IFA members in China. In addition, senior representatives of the IFA Secretariat have been making presentations in well-known fertilizer conferences in China and have been meeting with industry executives across China.

Partnerships have been developed with several key players in the Chinese fertilizer industry. The participation of potential members in IFA events has provided an additional incentive to better appreciate IFA’s current activities and benefits through various approaches, including invitation to participate in IFA’s conferences abroad and the creation of a Chinese portal within the IFA web site that provides easy access to all Chinese language documents in one place and statistical tables.

Over the past five years, the number of Chinese members in IFA has expanded four-fold since the Initiative was launched, as shown in the graphic below, which includes Chinese fertilizer producer members (OR) and Chinese fertilizer trader members (AS). As a result, IFA’s outlook and statistical reports have become more widely known within the Chinese fertilizer industry and have generated strong benefits to IFA’s new members in China.