São Paulo – Brazilian imports of fertilizers from the Arab countries declined in the first five months of the year. According to the Brazilian Ministry of Development, Industry and Foreign Trade, imports dropped from US$ 365.8 million from January to May 2011 to US$ 269.8 million in the same period of 2012, a decline of 26%. In terms of volume, the decline was sharper, at 32%, down from 755,800 tonnes to 514,300 tonnes.
According to Tomás Huyer, the director of the Intertrade Group, a Rio Grande do Sul state-based fertilizer importing company, Tunisia, one of the countries that supply Brazil, drastically lowered its output due to domestic problems. Labourer strikes taking place across several industries in the country are causing Tunisia to generally lower its exports. The country supplies mostly superphosphate and its products to Brazil.
As to the remaining Arab supplying countries, Huyer claims that he sees no reason for a decline in imports. He believes it was a seasonal phenomenon, and that a switch in suppliers is not underway. The Brazilian market, says the executive, should increase its imports as the year goes by. “And the major suppliers are the same,” he says, citing the Moroccan phosphate industry.
From January to May this year, fertilizers imported by Brazil from Arab countries included superphosphate, ammonium dihydrogen orthophosphate, nitrogen-based urea, and diammonium hydrogen orthophosphate. The main supplier was Morocco, at US$ 209 million, down 17%, followed by Egypt, at US$ 35 million and down 37%, Kuwait, at US$ 14.7 million, up 140% compared with the first five months of 2011, and the Emirates, at US$ 6.7 million (the country did not sell to Brazil in the same period of last year).
Imports from Tunisia amounted to US$ 3.7 million, down 73%. From January to May of last year, Brazil also imported fertilizers from Oman and Qatar, at US$ 19 million and US$ 17 million respectively. The Ministry of Development has no records of purchases from these two countries up until May this year.
According to figures of the National Association for the Promotion of Fertilizers and Lime (Anda, in the Portuguese acronym), there was a decline in Brazil’s overall fertilizer imports this year. From January to April, imports reached 4.2 million tonnes, down 25% compared with the same period of 2011. On the other hand, domestic production was up 4.8%, to 2.9 million tonnes, and exports were down 46.3%, to 94,000 tonnes. Domestic consumption, according to the Anda, was up 8.3% to 6.8 million tonnes.
*Translated by Gabriel Pomerancblum
