São Paulo – The Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Supply (Mapa) opened this Thursday (17th) a public consultation on new norms for imports of fertilizers, correctives, inoculants, bio-fertilizers, remineralization, plant substrates and inputs. Fertilizers are among the main products imported by Brazil from the Arab world.
The regulatory instruction project was published in the Official Federal Gazette and the ministry is open to suggestions from gencies, organizations, companies or any person interested in the topic for a 60-day term (see the contacts below).
The instruction covers the necessary steps and rules for the purchase of products outside Brazil, among them the ruling on who can import the products: importing outlets registered with Mapa to the legal or natural person end consumer, including cooperatives for distribution among its members, companies or persons for research purposes and scientific experimentation or assessment of the product’s quality.
The norm also says the importer must obtain an importing license, according to the rules of the ministry. This document needs to contain information such as the description of the products, guarantees, quantity, if packaged or in bulk, registration number of the farmer in the case of purchase by end consumer or cooperative, among others. During the process, the Inspection Service can demand documents such as the product’s analysis certificate, issued by the country of origin and translated, with a table of contents, among other data.
Brazil is a large fertilizer importer, since domestic production is not able to meet the demand of local agriculture sector. According to data provided by the Brazilian National Fertilizer Association (Anda), from January to November of this year, the country imported 19.8 million of tons of fertilizers. In all, domestic production stood at 8.3 million tons of fertilizers in the same period. The consumption reached 28.1 million tons.
Data from the Ministry of Development, Industry and Foreign Trade (Mdic) shows that Brazil imported from the Arab World 3.2 million tons of fertilizers from January to November of this year. Spending with purchase of fertilizers from the region reached USD 1.1 billion. The leading Arab supplier in the period was Qatar, followed by Morocco, Saudi Arabia and Oman. The first two, however, account for almost all of the supply, with 1.2 million tons shipped by Qatar and 941,000 tons by Morocco.
To send suggestions about the issuance of regulatory instructions:
cfic.dfia@agricultura.gov.br
Inspection Department on Agricultural Input DFIA/SDA/MAPA
Anexo A, sala 317, 3º andar
Esplanada dos Ministérios
Brasília – DF
Zip Code: 70043-900
*Translated by Sérgio Kakitani
