With an Investment of US$1 Billion, Eurochem Group Expects to Supply Brazil with 1 Million Tons of Phosphate Fertilizer Per Year

According to Reuters news on December 21, EuroChem Group, a global fertilizer supplier headquartered in Switzerland, said that it will start producing phosphate fertilizer in the Brazilian state of Minas Gerais in the first quarter of 2024. The company has received operating permits for its chemical plant at its mine in the Serra do Salitre mountain range.

Eurochem Group said this is its first mining plant outside continental Europe and is expected to produce about 1 million tons of phosphate fertilizer in Brazil each year, accounting for 15% of Brazil's national phosphate fertilizer production.

Gustavo Horbach, CEO of EuroChem Group South America, said in a statement: EuroChem Group is transforming into an important fertilizer production group in Brazil and South America. EuroChem Group can take advantage of Brazil's long-term shortage of fertilizer supply and expand its factory in Minas Gerais, Brazil, which will help increase the group's sales in South America. With the arrival of the agricultural planting season in Brazil, the long-term slump in global fertilizer prices may end in the first half of 2024.

Eurochem Group has invested US$1 billion in a Brazilian phosphate fertilizer production project, which it says will help reduce Brazil's dependence on fertilizer imports. As a major agricultural country in South America, Brazil relies on imports for about 85% of its fertilizers.