New Delhi, Oct 10 (IANS): Major Indian ports have increased their market share in handling fertilizers for the first time in six years, an official statement said on Saturday.

From a high of 67.30 percent in market share in 2008-09, the market share fell to its lowest of 25.38 percent in six years in 2013-14 for ports, the shipping ministry said in a statement.

However, the turnaround stared from 2014-15 when the fertilizer handling market share of major Indian ports rose slightly to 26.93 percent, it said, adding by 2015-16, the climb bettered by 4.67 percent to reach 31.60 percent.

The improvement has been attributed to increase in productivity, efficiency, faster turnaround time and policy changes initiated by the chemicals and fertilizers ministry, the statement added.

"All these policy changes have been initiated at the behest of ministry of shipping. The effort has been to ensure efficient handling of fertilizer import to reduce landed cost of fertilizer at its destination," it said.