Bolsonaro: Brazil acts to maintain fertilizer supply

President Jair Bolsonaro said the federal government has been acting to guarantee the supply of fertilizers in Brazil.

In his speech at the opening of the 27th International Agricultural Technology in Action Fair (Agrishow), in Ribeirão Preto, in São Paulo state on Monday (April 25), the president said despite the economic embargoes suffered by Russia, one of the main suppliers of inputs, due to the war with Ukraine, Brazil is managing to import fertilizers.

According to Bolsonaro, the visit made to Russian President Vladimir Putin in February helped to maintain fertilizer shipments to Brazil.

After his visit to President Vladimir Putin, considered inappropriate by some people, almost 30 ships with fertilizers left Russia for Brazil, said President Bolsonaro. “In other words, our foreign policy led by Foreign Affairs Minister Carlos França is recognized by all of us and the rest of the world,” he added.

Bolsonaro explained he has also discussed the matter with the Nigerian director-general of the World Trade Organization (WTO) Okonjo-Iweala, during her visit to Brazil last week. “I made her a request to help us so that the flows of fertilizers for Brazil, and for the rest of the world are not interrupted, and the prices stop going up.”

Brazil consumes 8 percent of all world fertilizer production estimated at 55 million tons, but imports 85 percent of the input used by agribusiness, mainly from Russia, which is currently suffering a strong economic embargo promoted by the United States, Western European countries, and Japan, because of the military invasion of Ukraine.