Panel SA: Protagonism of Fertilizer in War Moves Mining Industry in Brazil

While Jair Bolsonaro avoids criticizing Vladimir Putin in the Ukraine war on the grounds that Brazil depends on Russian fertilizers, the mining industry moves on the agenda of local production.

Ibram (Brazilian Mining Institute), which brings together companies such as Yara and Mosaic, wants to suggest to the government the creation of a working group to discuss the increase in fertilizer production in Brazil, with the objective of reducing external dependence.

According to Julio Cesar Ferreira, director at Ibram, one of the focuses of the plan is to increase the number of deposits for the extraction of potassium.

He claims that this sector proposal already existed before the war in Ukraine.

Ferreira says that the idea is that, in addition to the productive sector, the group has the presence of state and federal governments, including bodies such as Ibama, Funai, the National Mining Agency, agriculture committees of the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate.

This Wednesday (2), Bolsonaro used the possible shortage of fertilizers to defend the approval of a bill that, according to him, “allows the exploitation of mineral, water and organic resources in indigenous lands”.

“In 2016, as a deputy, I spoke about our dependence on potassium from Russia. I mentioned three problems: environmental, indigenous and who owned the exploratory right at the mouth of the Madeira River (there are also deposits in other regions of the country)”, wrote the representative on the Internet.

Ibram states that its proposal to create the working group “does not refer to mining on indigenous lands, as there is no law regulating this”. According to the entity, there are large other areas where deposits of ores suitable for the manufacture of fertilizers can be identified.

Joana Cunha with Andressa Motter and Ana Paula Branco