An executive with The Mosaic Co., Tampa, said Brazil farmers should expect high fertilizer prices for the rest of the year, according to a Bloomberg report. “We don’t see room for prices to fall through the year-end amid this scenario of uncertainties,” said Mosaic’s Eduardo Monteiro, Commercial Vice President in Brazil. “Farmers need to make decisions now to have crop nutrients delivered for Brazil’s winter crops at the beginning of next year. They don’t have much time to postpone it.”
About 40 percent of the fertilizers expected to be used in Brazil’s winter crops – especially corn and cotton – have not been bought yet, while coffee farmers have not bought about 30 percent of the nutrients that should be applied by the end of the year. The agricultural superpower, the top exporter of sugar and coffee and No. 2 supplier of corn, needs to buy around 80 percent of its fertilizer requirements.
While the Mosaic executive said there’s no lack of fertilizers in Brazil nowadays, some delays on deliveries have occurred because of logistical bottlenecks at ports. However, he said that is not the case for Mosaic, which operates through private terminals in the two biggest Brazilian ports, Santos and Paranagua.
Fertilizer deliveries in Brazil are expected to reach a record high of about 45 million mt this year, up 11 percent from last year. Rising demand in the South American nation and other agriculture producers such China and India have bolstered global prices during the past year. Now, factors such as sanctions against Belarus’s state-owned potash producer and China’s decision to limit exports are supporting the boom, he said.
Still, fertilizer sales are slower than usual for the coming 2022-23 season as surging fertilizer costs have reduced farmers’ margins compared to the two previous seasons. But Brazilians are still making profits from crop sales.
“Our advice for farmers is to lock in fertilizer purchases gradually and have a safe supply chain,” Monteiro said in an interview.