Brazilian Foreign Minister Carlos França asked US Secretary of State Antony Blinken for a special license for Brazil to buy fertilizers from countries that are under sanctions as a result of the war in Ukraine, including Russia.
The statement was given at a public hearing of the Committee on Foreign Relations in the Senate on Wednesday (6).
On several occasions in recent weeks, the Ministry of Agriculture has highlighted that Brazil has a sufficient stock of fertilizers to reach the next crop, which begins to be planted in October. It is from there that the limitation on imports concerns.
The fourth largest consumer market for fertilizers, Brazil imports about 85% of what it uses — Russia is the origin of 23% of this stock. With a large percentage of imported fertilizers coming precisely from Eastern Europe, the conflict in Ukraine has put agribusiness on alert due to the risk of product shortages.
France clarified that the dialogue with the United States took place so that Brazilian companies can negotiate with countries that are under sanction and have the guarantee that they will not suffer penalties if this occurs. He cited Iran and Russia as an example.
“I asked for a guarantee that the company can do business with the Iranian company and it will not be sanctioned later. Business with Iran is usually minimal in relation to these companies. They all want to be able to do business with Europe and with the States United,” he declared.
He said the US government has promised to find a solution. He also added that he has not given up on negotiating with Russia.
“And we didn’t give up on Russia either. Russia is a producer that we have a contract and what we are trying to do now is to overcome the logistical difficulties and also assure the Brazilian importer that we will have no problem, they will have no problem negotiating with Russia despite sanctions,” France said.
Russia’s ambassador to Brazil, Alexei Kazimirovitch Labetski, had already said a day earlier that Moscow was working to maintain the export of fertilizers to Brazil, amid trade restrictions linked to the imposition of sanctions against the country due to the war in Ukraine.
“We confirm our will to continue supplying fertilizers from all groups to the Federative Republic of Brazil,” he said.
“In the current situation, in which illegitimate sanctions were carried out against our country, we are open to work and create the new procedures necessary for logistics, which is very important, and for the payment of products, fertilizers and Brazilian agricultural products supplied to Russia.”
France said that Brazil is also talking to other countries, such as Canada, Saudi Arabia and Nigeria. He added that the work for the country to solve the fertilizer situation has been done with the help of several ministries of the federal government.
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