Switzerland-based fertiliser producer EuroChem has officially opened a new phosphate fertiliser production facility in Brazil.
With a total investment of nearly $1 billion, the new phosphate mine and plant complex located in the southeast of the country will have an annual production capacity of 1 million tonnes of advanced phosphate fertilisers.
EuroChem said the facility, “constructed in record-breaking time”, will significantly increase domestic phosphate fertiliser supplies for Brazilian farmers.
The company said the state-of-the-art facility has low water consumption, a fully closed water circuit, and a clean energy generation system that re-uses its own steam and generates up to 40% of the entire facility’s energy needs.
Fertiliser
Founded in 2001, EuroChem employs over 30,000 people and owns and operates mines and production facilities in Europe, South America, China, Kazakhstan and Russia.
In 2023, the company produced and sold more than 27 million tonnes of fertilisers.
EuroChem has been present in Brazil since 2016 and currently has 21 production units in the country employing 3,000 people.
EuroChem group president Oleg Shiryaev said that South America is a “key growth market” for the company.
“The launch of our new facility moves us one step closer to our customers and allows us to provide Brazilian farmers with access to the highest quality fertilisers via our well-established distribution network in this important global breadbasket,” he said.
Brazil currently consumes around 8% of the world’s fertiliser, ranking fourth behind China, India and the US. However, more than 87% of fertilisers used in Brazil are imported.
President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said that said that Brazil wants to reduce its external dependence on fertilisers.
“We want to stop being importers. The money we paid to import fertilisers to Brazil could have been invested in businesspeople , which creates jobs here, which generates salaries here, which generates quality of life here,” he said.
Brazil is aiming to increase national production to meet between 45% and 50% of domestic fertiliser demand by 2050.
The new EuroChem plant represents 15% of the country’s domestic production of phosphate fertilisers .
The complex will also produce 1 million tonnes of sulfuric acid and 240 thousand tonnes of phosphoric acid annually.
