Sir: It is heartening to note that the government of Pakistan has timely realised the current opportunity to export surplus urea. Over the recent months, the Pakistani urea producers and other informed stakeholders have been urging the government to allow strategic exports to avoid an excessive inventory build-up of urea in the country. The carrying costs and storage of this huge surplus would have been a big financial burden on this heavily-taxed industry. After many years of prohibition of urea exports, the Economic Coordination Committee (ECC) has finally approved the export of 300,000 tons of surplus urea till 28th of April 2017, without offering subsidy (Rs 200) on the exported bags. This favourable decision will surely provide significant relief to the local fertilizer producers, who are expecting a surplus inventory build-up of over one million tons of urea in the country. This high productivity has been achieved due to regularity in supply of Natural Gas and some other valuable incentives granted to the fertilizer factories. This higher productivity does reflect better performance, however, due to a suppressed demand for urea in the domestic market, the sales have been low and urea inventories have been piling-up for many months now. The local consumption of urea in Pakistan is only 5.4 million tons, so a lucrative opportunity has emerged, to export surplus urea and earn precious foreign exchange. This will also reduce Pakistan’s trade-deficit and ease the financial pressures off the local fertilizer industry. Currently, the high international prices of urea (nearly $255 per ton), will generate a handsome contribution to the national economy and stabilize the dwindling exports of the country, without disturbing the domestic market. Moreover, the government authorities should ensure that the manufacturers continue to get the subsidy on feed-stock gas for urea-production, which is passed-on to the farmers for agricultural prosperity. Pakistan must take maximum advantage of this export opportunity, to overcome the challenges faced by our fertilizer industry. SYED FAKHIR ALI Lahore