RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – Brazil imported record volumes of potassium chloride (Kcl) from Canada in the first half of the year, a sign that farmers will have good supplies of fertilizer to nourish crops, boost yields and potentially expand acreage when planting begins in September.
According to data compiled by consultancy Agrinvest Commodities and sent to Reuters on July 7, Brazil imported 2.291 million tons of Canadian potash between January and June, an annual increase of 71.2%.
“Canada only supplies potassium chloride to Brazil,” said Jeferson Souza, an analyst at Agrinvest. “But the volume of Kcl imported by Brazil in the first half of the year was so large that Canada became the second-largest fertilizer supplier overall in the period.”
He added that Russia was the largest fertilizer supplier to Brazil, with China third.
Brazil’s total fertilizer purchases advanced 13% in the first half of the year, according to data from shipping agency Cargonave.
In the period, imports of potassium chloride from Belarus fell 16% to 949,708 tons, even though it is still Brazil’s third-largest supplier of Kcl as Western sanctions have targeted the country.
Brazil’s Kcl imports from Russia, a country also hit by sanctions following the invasion of Ukraine, rose 27% to 1.935 million tons, the data show.
According to Souza, the Russians are selling fertilizer to Brazilian and US importers, a situation “unthinkable” in mid-March.
Despite the war and sanctions, business is being conducted by Russia, and cargoes are being shipped.
With uninterrupted trade flows, producers in Mato Grosso, Brazil’s leading grain state, have acquired virtually all the nutrients they need to start planting summer crops, Souza noted.
About 45% of fertilizer consumption goes to the soybean crop in Brazil, the world’s largest producer and exporter of the oilseed.
Next season, weather permitting, Brazilian soybean producers could increase production by 18.5% to nearly 148 million tons, according to a Reuters poll, which projects a potential area expansion of almost 3%.
With information from Reuters
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