Brazil is looking to boost mining projects associated with the production of fertilizers as players seek to reduce the country’s dependency on imported products.
“Despite feeding around 800mn people in the world, Brazil is dependent on the international market and imports at least 80% of the fertilizers used to improve the productivity and quality of our crops,” said senator Laércio Oliveira during a hearing to discuss the high dependency of Brazil on imported fertilizer, according to a statement from the upper house.
“To complicate this scenario, the current war between Russia and Ukraine, which has already completed 16 months, has aggravated dependence and affected the Brazilian economy, with impacts on agriculture and food security,” Oliveira added.
Russia produces 23% of the fertilizers imported by Brazil. In 2021, Brazil spent around US$15bn importing fertilizers, according to the most recent figure available.
Also at the senate hearing, Vítor Saback, the secretary of geoloy, mining and mineral transformation at the mines and energy ministry (MME), said the government is already involved in multiple initiatives to address the issue.
“The MME has been closely monitoring and supporting the development of important projects, seeking to unblock the bottlenecks of each project in order to be able to increase our offer of phosphate and potassium fertilizers,” said Saback in a separate statement.
The official underlined that the ministry is working to unlock areas not being explored to find new reserves, supporting projects that are being implemented or expanded and working on the sector’s regulation to reduce deadlines for obtaining mining rights.
“The green hydrogen projects currently under development in Brazil will also be associated with the production of green ammonia, which will help Brazil to reduce its dependence on imported fertilizers,” Carlos Leiria Pinto, the head of the IFC in Brazil, told BNamericas.
