The lack of a realistic perspective on the end of the war between Russia and Ukraine, which has just completed three months, maintains concern about the supply of fertilizers to Brazilian and global agribusiness. So much so that the minister of Agriculture, Livestock and Supply, Marcos Montes, has continued the conversations started by his predecessor Tereza Cristina with Arab countries. Like Jordan, which Montes visited this month and returned from there with the promise of the Arab Potash Company to increase the export of potassium – one of the three main elements of fertilizers, along with nitrogen and phosphorus – to Brazil. That would be 500 thousand tons next year, reaching a total of 1.2 million tons in five years.
Here, companies in the mining sector that were already investing in expanding the supply of potash stepped up their pace. This is the case of Verde Agritech, which has a mine in the city of São Gotardo (MG) and also has operations in neighboring Matutina. In 2021, the company produced more than 400 thousand tons of chlorine-free potassium-based inputs. And until the last quarter of this year it could reach 2.4 million tons.
To increase the 2021 operation by six times, the company is investing R$ 73 million in the construction of a new unit, which will be ready in the second half of the year. The expectation goes further, as Verde Agritech’s plan is to become the largest national producer of potash. According to the company’s founder and CEO, Cristiano Veloso, by 2023 work will begin on a third factory, with even greater capacity. “We are defining in which state it will be implemented, but it will certainly become independent of potassium imports”, said the executive. The estimate is to supply 16% of Brazilian demand for the mineral when the three units are in operation.
Founded in 2005, in England, Verde Agritech has been publicly traded on the Toronto Stock Exchange since 2007 and, soon, should also enter the New York Stock Exchange to gain more visibility, according to the company’s CEO. Meanwhile, the projection is due to factors such as technological development, customer confidence (more than 2,000 farmers with more than 500,000 hectares) and the endorsement of specialists such as the former Minister of Agriculture, Alysson Paolinelli, who is a member of the company’s board of directors.
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