Minister travels to Iran to promote fertilizer import
Brazil’s Minister of Agriculture, Livestock and Supply Tereza Cristina is on her way to Iran, where she will carry out a business agenda in fertilizers for the agricultural sector, with a focus on importing Iranian urea. According to the ministry, she shall meet with Iranian Agriculture Minister Seyed Javad Sadati Nejadi, and with the president of the Agriculture Commission of the Iranian parliament, deputy Muhammad Askari. Tereza Cristina shall also have meetings with members of the Brazilian-Iranian Chamber of Commerce, and the Business Forum for both countries. A visit to Shiraz Petrochemical, an important urea producer, and to the Shiraz Chamber of Commerce is also planned.
"Brazil is a major food exporter to Iran and also a major fertilizer importer - mainly urea – from Iran. I am sure that this will be a very successful mission and many business opportunities shall arise," wrote the minister in a social media post. She is taking a delegation of Brazilian businessmen with her.
In 2020, Brazil exported to Iran $ 1.9 billion dollar in agricultural products e.g., corn (64.4%), and soybeans in grains (21.2%). On the other hand, sales of Iranian agricultural products to Brazil totaled $ 2 million dollars in 2020, mostly walnuts, chestnuts, raisins, and other dried fruits.
Last week, the minister was tested positive again for COVID-19. For this reason, she could not join President Bolsonaro’s delegation on his trip to Russia, where the import of fertilizers was also one of the central themes. One third of the potassium chloride and almost all the ammonium nitrate imported by Brazil - two of the most used fertilizers in agriculture – come from Russia.
Brazil imports currently over 80% of the fertilizers used in agribusiness in the country. Because of this external dependence and the risk of fertilizer shortages in the international market, which could affect the grain harvest in 2023, the federal government has created an inter-ministerial working group to discuss the issue.
The idea is to develop a policy to expand the national production of agricultural fertilizers. One of the initiatives which is being assessed is the permission for the exploration of potassium reserves in the Amazon, and of mineral resources in indigenous lands.
