Brazil will ask Canada to supply part of the fertilizers it bought from Russia

Brazil, one of the largest food producers in the world and also one of the largest importers of fertilizers, will negotiate an increase in purchases of these products from Canada to supply part of those that will stop arriving from Russia due to the current crisis.

The Ministry of Agriculture reported in a statement that the head of the Portfolio, Teresa Cristina Correa, has already scheduled a trip to Canada on March 12 to start the respective negotiations.

According to the statement, the purpose of the trip is to increase purchases of potassium from Canada given the possibility that Brazil will not be able to import it from Russia due to the economic sanctions imposed on that country for its military attack on Ukraine.

Canada was the fourth largest supplier of chemical fertilizers to Brazil last year, after Russia, China and Morocco.

In addition to her visit to Canada this month, the minister was in Iran last year also negotiating the possibility of tripling, up to two million tons a year, the volume of fertilizers she buys from the Iranian state-owned National Petrochemical Company (NPC).

Brazil, an important supplier of food to the world and the world’s largest exporter of products such as soybeans, coffee, orange juice and sugar, depends on imported fertilizers for its agriculture, especially potassium, of which it has to buy 95% abroad. of what you consume.

In a press conference this Wednesday, the minister stated that, since the new crop has already been planted, Brazil has enough fertilizers until next October, when the cultivation of the summer crop will begin.

He added that the situation is not worrying for now and that since last year Brazil has been studying alternatives to guarantee supply in the event of a possible shortage of fertilizers caused by the war between Russia and Ukraine.

“The next summer harvest, which will begin in October, is the one that worries us, because the private sector has already confirmed that it has a sufficient reserve until October”, he stated.

He added that, as this dependency has to be addressed as a matter of food security and national security, the Government will launch in the coming days the National Fertilizer Plan, in preparation since last year, when the Ministry already warned about the need for that the country produced between 50% and 60% of the fertilizers it consumes.

Brazil is the fourth largest consumer of fertilizers, the main importer and responsible for 8% of those consumed worldwide, according to figures from the Ministry.

Despite this, the Latin American giant imports 80% of all the fertilizers it needs and in the case of potassium, that percentage jumps to 95%.

Russia, the world’s largest exporter of fertilizers, is the origin of 25% of those imported by Brazil. As for potassium, Russia is responsible for 20% of world production and 28% of that imported by Brazil.

Before him “risk” that Brazil runs out of potassium as a result of the war, the Brazilian president, Jair Bolsonaro, defended this Wednesday the approval of a bill from his Government that allows the exploitation of the reserves of that mineral existing in environmental and indigenous reserves in the Amazon.

“With the Russia-Ukraine war, we run the risk of a potassium shortage or its price rising. Our food security and agribusiness require from us, Executive and Legislative, measures that allow us not to depend externally on something that we have in abundance”, said the far-right leader in a message on his social networks.