Petrobras restarts fertilizer plants to meet 35% of Brazil’s demand

Petrobras expects to meet more than one-third of Brazil’s fertilizer demand by resuming its in-house production of the input, which is considered essential to the country’s agricultural wellbeing.

The announcement was made during President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva’s visit to the nitrogen fertilizer plant in Bahia, known as Fafen, on Thursday, May 14, in Camaçari, in the metropolitan region of Salvador.

Lula was accompanied by representatives of the state-run company, ministers and Bahia Governor Jerônimo Rodrigues.

With an investment of R$100 million, the industrial plant was restarted in January 2026 after being mothballed for about six years. The unit has capacity to produce 1,300 tonnes of urea per day, equivalent to around 5% of national demand.

The restart is also generating 900 direct jobs and another 2,700 indirect jobs in the region. The resumption of Fafen adds to other initiatives, including the reopening of the Fafen plant in Laranjeiras, in Sergipe state, and the plant operated by Araucária Nitrogenados S.A. (Ansa), in Araucária, in the metropolitan region of Curitiba.

A fourth Petrobras plant, Nitrogen Fertilizer Unit III, or UFN-III, in Três Lagoas, Mato Grosso do Sul, is under construction, with operations expected to begin in 2029.

“With the Mato Grosso do Sul plant, the Paraná plant, the Sergipe plant and the Bahia plant, we will produce 35% of the nitrogen fertilizers Brazil needs,” Petrobras President Magda Chambriard said during the visit to Fafen in Camaçari.

Nitrogen fertilizers, such as urea, are widely used by farmers. Their production requires raw material derived from natural gas, which is produced by Petrobras.

The use of fertilizers allows Brazil to produce food on a large scale and maintain its position as one of the world’s largest agricultural exporters.

“Brazil is an agricultural country. Brazil is the second-largest food producer. And Brazil needs fertilizer. Brazil cannot import 90% of the fertilizer our agriculture needs. Brazil needs to stand on its own feet and produce fertilizers,” Lula said in a speech during the visit.

Brazil currently depends on imports for about 85% to 90% of the fertilizers it consumes, making this one of the main vulnerabilities of the country’s agribusiness sector. This dependence is structural, as Brazil is the world’s fourth-largest fertilizer consumer, accounting for around 8% of all fertilizer used globally.

Data obtained by Datamar already shows a 12.3% decline in Brazil’s fertilizer imports in the first quarter of the year. See more details below:

Fertilizer Imports | Jan-Mar 2026 | WTMT

Source: DataLiner (click here to request a demo)

National industry

The president compared the restart of Fafen in Bahia to other initiatives aimed at boosting national industry, such as the shipbuilding sector, with the reopening of shipyards. According to Lula, Brazil abandoned strategic activities when it adopted the logic that buying from abroad would be cheaper than producing domestically.

“Producing here could be a little more expensive, that is true. But we would be bringing technological knowledge here, we would be bringing skilled labor here, we would be bringing wage payments here, we would be bringing internal development so that Brazil could compete,” he said.

The president also criticized the privatization of Petrobras public assets under previous administrations, citing the sale of BR Distribuidora, Petrobras’ former fuel distribution subsidiary.

The company, now called Vibra Distribuidora, was sold by Petrobras between 2019 and 2021, during the administration of former President Jair Bolsonaro. According to Lula, the sale weakened Petrobras’ ability to balance fuel prices at gas stations.

“Do you think I ever accepted the sale of BR? Why sell BR? In other words, by selling BR, they took away Petrobras’ right to influence prices and distribution,” he said.

Lula also said he would like to see Petrobras return to the sector. “I am certain that, if we keep the pace we are setting, and if you have the political will, we will have a gasoline distributor once again.”

Source: Agência Brasil

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