São Paulo – Brazilian imports of fertilizers declined 12.8% in H1 this year over the same months of last year, according to data from the Brazilian National Fertilizer Association (Anda). Brazil bought 9.5 million tons of fertilizers from abroad from January to June of this year, against 10.9 million tons in the same period of last year. For the period, less 1.4 million tons imported.
In June alone, however, there was an increase of 8% in international buys of the product, according to data from Anda. Brazil imported 2 million tons in June 2014 and 2.2 million tons last month.
Brazilian fertilizers purchases from Arab countries had a worst performance than in general. Brazil bought 1.2 million tons of fertilizers from the region in H1, a drop of 39%, and 305,000 tons in June, a decline of 21%. This data about the Arabs comes from the Ministry of Development, Industry and Foreign Trade (MDIC) and shows that the region answers for more than 10% of the supply of foreign fertilizers to Brazil.
In a press release about H1, Anda reported that there’s a weaker domestic consumption, which it attributes to a lower demand from winter corn, cotton, sugar cane, wheat and soybean crops. In imports, there was a decline of 5.6% in purchases of nitrogenous, 15.8% of phosphate and of 20.2% of potassium fertilizers. Products from abroad arrive mainly by the Port of Paranaguá, which answers for almost half of arrivals.
Fertilizers deliveries to the end consumer in Brazil dropped 9.6% in H1 and stood at 11.7 million tons. The biggest demand came from Mato Grosso state, followed by Paraná, São Paulo, Goiás and Minas Gerais states.
Domestic output meets less than half of the country’s consumption. From January to June, Brazil produced 4.3 million tons of fertilizers. There was, however, an increase of 5.1% over H1 2014, when 4.1 million tons were produced in the country.
*Translated by Sérgio Kakitani
