Bolsonaro says Brazil will face supply problems

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – The situation in China should impact Brazil, and the first effects are already being felt. Agribusiness is facing more difficulty buying pesticides and fertilizers, and the mining sector is seeing international prices fall. The energy sector, in turn, is affected by record natural gas prices.

President Jair Bolsonaro said on Thursday (7) that Brazil should face “supply problems” next year. According to the president, the scenario of a possible shortage of products in 2022 is related to the energy crisis in China.

“I am already warning a year in advance. Because of the energy crisis, China is starting to produce less fertilizer. The price has already risen, it will continue to rise, and there will be a shortage. For every five plates of food in the world, one comes from Brazil. Next year we will have supply problems,” Bolsonaro said at a ceremony at the Planalto Palace.

Also, according to Bolsonaro, in the face of this scenario, the SAE (Secretariat of Strategic Affairs) is concluding the preparation of an emergency fertilizer plan.

The Chinese energy crisis forces the Asian country to promote scheduled blackouts due to a lack of generation capacity.

The situation of the world’s second-largest economy should impact Brazil, and the first effects are already being felt. Agribusiness is facing more difficulty buying pesticides and fertilizers, and the mining sector is seeing international prices fall. The energy sector, in turn, is affected by record natural gas prices.

Contacts in the government who follow the issue say the forecast is that the Chinese energy crisis will affect Brazilian agricultural production. However, they said on condition of anonymity that they are not working with a supply shortage scenario at the moment.

Studies are being made -say interlocutors- to diminish the effects of the possible lack of fertilizers and pesticides.

Later, during his weekly live broadcast, Bolsonaro returned to the topic.

“As there will be a shortage of fertilizer, due to lack of supply in the market, he [the rural producer] will plant less,” said Bolsonaro. “If he plants less, he will harvest less. Less supply, the same or slightly higher demand, [has] price increase. This is for the whole world.”

In the same speech at the Planalto, Bolsonaro said he talked again with the president of Petrobras, General Joaquim Silva e Luna, about fuel prices. He also addressed inflation as a problem that has affected other countries, citing rising fuel and gas prices.

FERTILIZER PRODUCTION IN BRAZIL

The government is preparing a project aimed at the production of fertilizers, to be presented early next month.

According to the president, the Minister of Agriculture, Tereza Cristina, and the head of the Secretariat of Strategic Affairs, Flávio Rocha, are working on a proposal to optimize the use of raw materials available in Brazil for the production of fertilizers.

The topic, according to the president, was discussed at Bolsonaro’s breakfast with members of the Parliamentary Front for Agriculture and Cattle Raising the day before.