Yang said many small companies have great potential to grow. "We are eyeing players with a production capacity of at least 50,000 tons."

The company has seen its shares jump by over a quarter in Hong Kong trading after a US$341 million offering in September.

"China's fertilizer industry is facing great opportunities," said Li. "With the opening of the fertilizer market, more and more foreign giants will begin to eye the sector."

In February the world's biggest fertilizer enterprise, Canada-based Potash Corp of Saskatchewan Inc, completed a 10.01 per cent purchase of Sinofert for US$126 million.

The acquisition boosted Potash Corp's holding in Sinofert to 20 per cent. Potash Corp purchased 9.99 per cent stake in the company last year.

"This is a significant investment that will have an immediate positive impact on our company and, more importantly, will provide significant growth potential for us over the long term," said Bill Doyle, Potash Corp president, when commenting on the deal.

Potash Corp is the world's largest fertilizer firm by capacity, producing the three primary plant nutrients-potash, phosphate and nitrogen. It is the world's largest potash company, with 23 per cent of the world's overall capacity and 86 per cent of unused global capacity.

China has become the world's largest producer and consumer of fertilizer, according to official statistics. It produces about one third of the world's fertilizer every year and consumes about 35 per cent.

China is also a big importer and exporter of fertilizers. Statistics show that in the January-September period of this year, the country imported 7.71 million tons of fertilizer and exported 3.44 million tons.

Since China entered the World Trade Organization five years ago, the nation has cancelled fertilizer import quotas and has altered tariff quotas to fulfil its commitments.

Currently, the nation's fertilizer price is still controlled by the government, which is much lower than the price on the global market.

China will gradually improve its pricing mechanism of fertilizer, said industry insiders.

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