BEIJING-- China's chemical fertilizer exports increased by 2.7 percent in September to 2.41 million metric tons, according to the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) on Tuesday.

The slight gain of chemical fertilizer exports in September helped secure an increase of 18.4 percent year-on-year export growth to 12.24 million metric tons in the first three quarters, the NDRC, China's top economic planner, said in a statement on its website.

The NDRC attributed the strong growth in exports to recovering demands in the international market and the country's low export duties for some fertilizer products.

According to the NDRC, exports of fertilizer products such as urea, NPK, diammonium phosphate and ammonium dihydrogenphosphate fell significantly or remained almost flat due to high export duties imposed on them.

Low tariffs or zero tariffs imposed by China on other chemical fertilizer exports helped lift their exports, as enterprises preferred to sell such fertilizer varieties overseas compared with those high-duty products, according to the NDRC.