Mar 26, 2010
Brazil Working To Be Self Sufficient In Fertilizer Production
Author: Michael Cordonnier/Soybean & Corn Advisor, Inc.
The Brazilian Ministry of Agriculture, Reinhold Stephanes, announced recently that they will create a new organization for the specific purpose of helping Brazil to become self sufficient in fertilizer production. It hasn't been decided yet if the new organization will be a semi-autonomous company, or a sub-ministry, or an entirely new department. After the recent sky high fertilizer prices that greatly increased the cost of production for Brazilian farmers, various farm organizations have petitioned the federal government to do something about the country's dependence on imported fertilizers.
In 2009, Brazil imported US$ 84 million in phosphorus and US$ 2 billion in potassium, which represented more than 90% of the potassium consumed in Brazil. Brazil produces only 1% of the world's potassium, but it consumes 13% of the potassium used worldwide in agriculture.
Stephanes indicated that Petrobras could play an important role in Brazil's fertilizer production. Petrobras is already constructing nitrogen fertilizer plants and is active in developing new mining operations. The government controls the largest know potassium deposits in the country, one located in Nova Olinda in the state of Amazonas and the other which is a mining operation in Taquari located in the state of Sergipe.
Petrobras has also announced that there is a good possibility that potassium deposits exist on the ocean floor in the shallow waters of the continental shelf. They discovered the deposits while successfully exploring for petroleum off the Brazilian coast. Brazilian geologist believe that other deposits of potassium exist in Brazil and the Ministry of Agriculture and the Ministry of Mines and Energy are jointly funding project to more fully explore for mineral deposits throughout Brazil.