Belarus makes 1st fertilizer shipment to Brazil in seven months

On September 8, a cargo vessel with approximately 28,000 tonnes of Belarusian potash arrived at the port of Paranaguá (PR) and is awaiting disembarkation. Although the quantity is small in comparison to the volume Brazilians traditionally import from Belarus (around 3 million tonnes per year), this was the first cargo shipment to leave the European country bound for Brazil since February, when European and American sanctions disrupted the logistical flow of suppliers like Belaruskali and Belarusian Potash Company (BPC). Andrey Chushev, a BPC representative in Brazil, provided the information.

According to him, the potash left the port of Novorossiysk, on the Black Sea, south of Russia. The country has been an outlet for Belarusians to export fertilizers. This week, for example, the government of Murmansk, also in Russia, announced the signing of a cooperation agreement with Belarus to build a terminal on the western shore of the Kola Bay capable of storing between 5 and 7 million tonnes of potash.

If all goes well, the project, made official after a meeting between Andrei Chibis, governor of Murmansk, and Belarusian President Aleksandr Lukashenko will help Belarus take another step towards rebuilding its logistical strategy for exporting fertilizers to the world. In the first quarter of this year, the country lost access to the only outlet it had to send potash to the global market.

At the time, the state-owned Lithuanian Railways announced it would no longer transport Belarusian goods via rail to the Lithuanian port of Klaipeda. Lithuania, a member of the European Union, announced the move to comply with the sanctions imposed on Belarus by EU countries in 2021. In addition to ports, the product has been shipped to China via Russian railways.

Month-on-month growth

Export volumes from Belarus have been increasing month by month as outbound routes have been rearranged. According to consultancy StoneX, the country shipped 95,000 tonnes of potash to the foreign market in May and 250,000 tonnes in July. “We know that the product is primarily going to China and India,” said Marcelo Mello, the fertilizer director at the company.

According to him, if the current pace continues, the country could rejoin the global market by the end of 2023. “If they can’t succeed in shipping the 12 million tonnes they have the capacity for, [the recovery] should at least amount to 8 or 10 million tonnes.”

In addition to logistics, the sanctions also made it difficult for customers to pay BPC. The solution found to mitigate the effects of the restrictions announced in April was to withdraw BPC’s sales exclusivity and distribute licenses to other companies to sell the country’s potash.

However, BPC’s Andrey Chushev claims that the company is the only one still exporting. He claims that the company has contacted the American government to resolve the payment issue. For the time being, he claims that the company’s absence from the global market has had no effect because demand is low. For example, there are enough stocks in Brazil, and producers have reduced purchases.

Between January and August, Brazilians imported around 9 million tonnes of fertilizer – 10% came from Belarus.

Source: Valor Econômico

To read the full original article, please go to: https://valor.globo.com/agronegocios/noticia/2022/09/16/belarus-faz-primeiro-envio-de-fertilizantes-ao-brasil-apos-sete-meses.ghtml

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