Turnover grows on fertilizers

Russian fertilizers have become one of the most priority areas in bilateral trade.

These days, a major international event is taking place in Rio — the 17th BRICS summit. One of the first and most important events of its business program was the Russian-Brazilian Business Forum. The meeting, organized by the Russia-Brazil Entrepreneurship Council and the Roscongress Foundation, brought together representatives of the business community and governments of the two countries.

Welcoming the participants of the forum, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of Brazil for Trade, Science, Technology, Innovation and Culture Laudemar Gonçalves de Aguiar Neto emphasized the need to further strengthen ties between the Russian Federation and Brazil.

"Despite the difficult geopolitical situation and various challenges, our relations continue to develop positively thanks to the desire of our governments and entrepreneurs of both countries. Russia will continue to be an important trading partner for Brazil," said Laudemar Gonçalves de Aguiar Neto.

He also noted that today cooperation between the two countries has already been established in such areas as biotechnology, energy, agriculture, but in order for this potential to become a reality, it is necessary to take specific steps, including within the BRICS framework, to expand and diversify bilateral trade, mutual investments and cooperation in the field of innovation. It is also worth noting that the Russian Federation is currently the largest and most stable supplier of fertilizers to Brazil.

"This is very important for our agribusiness, which feeds about 1 billion people in the world. We are confident that, despite the current operational and logistical difficulties, our relations will continue to strengthen, become more diversified and with new products with high added value, in which we count on the fundamental work of the Russia-Brazil Business Council, so worthily represented by its co-chairs Andrei Guryev and Pavel Cardoso," the Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs summed up.

The President of the Brazilian Association of the Coffee Industry, Chairman of the Brazil-Russia Council of Entrepreneurs Pavel Cardoso proposed five key areas for the development of bilateral relations, including stimulating investment and establishing a stable financial mechanism. According to him, this will allow increasing annual trade turnover to 16 billion dollars and deepening cooperation.

Chairman of the Russia-Brazil Council of Entrepreneurs, President of the Russian Association of Fertilizer Producers Andrey Guryev thanked his Brazilian colleagues for their hospitality, and the leadership of Russia and Brazil for supporting the mutual desire of businesses to dynamically develop cooperation.

"I have been heading the Russian part of the Entrepreneurs Council since 2019. During this time, the number of Business Council members has more than doubled, and our ties with our Brazilian partners are growing stronger year after year. Let's look at the statistics: in 2024, bilateral trade figures once again broke the historical maximum and grew by 9% at once - to $ 12.4 billion. Its driving force for many years has been the agro-industrial complex and the mineral fertilizer industry - Russia and Brazil have formed a strong and sustainable agribusiness chain that ensures food security for billions of people on the planet. Brazil is the most important supply direction for the Russian mineral fertilizer industry after the strategically priority domestic market. In 2024, the Russian Federation increased fertilizer exports to Brazil by 20% - to a record 11.4 million tons. The choice in favor of environmentally friendly Russian mineral fertilizers guarantees Brazilian farmers an important competitive advantage in the world market - the safety and quality of agricultural products," Andrey Guryev noted in his speech.

Fernando Galletti de Queiroz, CEO of the food company Minerva Foods, also spoke about the key role that the availability of Russian fertilizers plays in supporting food security. He emphasized that achieving food security is especially important for developing countries today, and also drew attention to the barriers that need to be eliminated to develop trade and economic relations between the Russian Federation and Brazil.

The role of Russian fertilizers for the stable development of the Brazilian agro-industrial complex was discussed in detail at the panel session "Partnership between Russia and Brazil in Ensuring Food Security". Opening it, Advisor to the Minister of Agriculture and Livestock of Brazil Jose Carlos Polidoro noted that Brazil and Russia are among the five largest food producers in the world.

"Brazil is the only one of these five countries that is heavily dependent on fertilizer imports. Therefore, we need stable relations with Russia," the speaker emphasized.

The world's largest supplier of complex and compound fertilizers to Brazil is the Russian agrochemical holding PhosAgro, the flagship of the domestic and global mineral fertilizer production industry. Deputy CEO of PhosAgro for Sales and Marketing Mikhail Sterkin also took part in the session and spoke about the company's record volumes of mineral fertilizer supplies to the Brazilian market.

"Last year, we supplied Brazilian farmers with almost 2.3 million tons of fertilizers. This is a historical record. In five years, we have doubled this volume, and our share in the total import of phosphate fertilizers with Brazil has increased from 9 to 23%. Today, PhosAgro is the world's largest supplier of complex and integrated fertilizers to Brazil. This year, the dynamics of deliveries has remained at the level of last year's record. In the first six months, we supplied Brazil with about 800 thousand tons of products," Sterkin said.

It is important that PhosAgro fertilizers, unlike the products of a number of foreign manufacturers, do not contain concentrations of cadmium that are dangerous to human health and soils. This is a guarantee of the environmental friendliness of agricultural products, a basic competitive advantage for farmers.

"This is confirmed by the "Environmental Quality Mark" of the Brazilian Association of Technical Standards, which we received, confirming compliance with the most stringent criteria for environmental friendliness and safety. Brazilian experts annually study the life cycle of our products, paying special attention to compliance with the requirements for the production, storage and transportation of fertilizers established by the national standard," said Mikhail Sterkin.

The top manager recalled that PhosAgro has a wide range of mineral fertilizers — 58 brands, including 14 with microelements. This allows it to take into account the specifics of the regions of Brazil and offer farmers the most rational solutions.

PhosAgro's mission in Brazil is not limited to trade. The company is implementing a number of humanitarian programs in the friendly country. Thus, in recent years, it has launched 60 soil laboratories in Brazil, whose task is to assess the quality and safety of fertilizers and monitor soil health. The initiative is being implemented as part of a program to create a network of such institutions in Latin America (LATSOLAN) together with the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations.

Several large international projects aimed at supporting young researchers and scientists are successfully developing with the participation of PhosAgro. More than 50 young researchers from Brazil have received cash scholarships as part of the Summer Schools on Green Chemistry, organized by PhosAgro and the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC). Grant support is also provided as part of the joint project of PhosAgro, UNESCO and IUPAC, Green Chemistry for Life.

In 2023, PhosAgro launched the international Pro Agro Lectorium platform in English and Portuguese. The platform has become a true international educational hub in the field of modern agricultural technologies, received the status of the official educational platform of the BRICS Business Council Agribusiness Working Group, and won the BRICS Solutions Awards 2024 competition.

"Today, hundreds of farmers and students from Brazil are gaining new knowledge and information on the platform. We will continue and expand this important work, strengthening the agro-industrial partnership between Russia and Brazil!" Mikhail Sterkin summed up.