Brazil prepares national fertilizer plan before international escalation of agricultural input

Tereza Cristina Dias, Minister of Agriculture of Brazilannounced this week the interest of the South American giant in investing and increasing the sources of domestic supply of fertilizers, in the face of the serious international crisis that is plaguing the world due to the cutback in economic activity and the war in Ukraine and Russia, the latter, the leading exporter world of synthetic fertilizers.

In this sense, the official specified that, in the shortest possible time, the Government of Jair Bolsonaro will launch a national fertilizer plan to stimulate investments in potassium and phosphorus mines, as a fundamental piece to guarantee the “issue of energy security”. ”.

Dias told CNN that the plan, under review by the Ministries of Economy and Agriculture, could be ready by March 17. Thus, its objective is to minimize bottlenecks in terms of legislation, taxes and, especially, in environmental issues, for the national development of the sector.

In a report collected by Red Agrícola, the minister also maintained that the package of measures will be important to speed up the approval of environmental licenses, because in some cases “it takes five to ten years, and investors end up giving up exploring that potential.”

Precisely, President Bolsonaro was the target of criticism this month because he refused to condemn Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, after stressing that Brazil would remain neutral for fear of losing its main supply of fertilizers.

It is not the only energy security project that Brazil carries out in the face of external factors. Recently, the Brazilian president met with the leaders of Guyana and Suriname, in the north of the continent, to lay the foundations of what could be a new world-class oil and gas pole, especially because of its proximity to the United States and Mexico.

Brazil and Peru, fertilizer importers

Brazil imports about 85% of its fertilizer consumption, including potash, which faces a major bottleneck due to the conflict in Ukraine and Western sanctions on Belarus, a major producer. In the case of potash, purchases abroad represent 96% of consumption, according to local government figures.

Last month, the head of grain farming and trading firm Amaggi, Blairo Maggi, said the group is in talks with Canadian Stan Bharti to develop the largest potash mine in Latin America, in an attempt to steer Brazilian farmers away from expensive fertilizer imports.

A similar situation exists in Peru, where more than 85% of the synthetic fertilizers used are imported, despite having in the Sechura desert, Piura, one of the largest deposits of phosphates in the world: the Bayóvar mine, operated by Miski Mayo, from Brazil’s Vale. The guano from the island distributed by the Government does not cover more than 2% of internal demand, and this is replicated in the high prices of food in the face of conflicts such as the one in Russia.

The expert on energy issues, Humberto Campodónico, explained in a recent discussion that our country has the three main components for the manufacture of fertilizers: phosphate rock (Bayóvar), ammonia (from natural gas) and sulfur (which will come out of the new Talara refinery).