Ammonium nitrate, a product identified as possibly responsible for the explosion at a port terminal in Lebanon, is the raw material for a common fertilizer in Brazilian agriculture, used for at least 50 years, especially in the production of sugarcane. Despite this, it is far from being the most widely used fertilizer by farmers. Brazil is one of the leaders in the world production of food, and the demand from farmers is much greater than the country can produce nitrate (about 500 thousand tons per year) and other chemical fertilizers. As a result, most fertilizers need to be imported. According to a survey done at G1’s request by the agribusiness consultancy StoneX, Brazil imported about 1.2 million tons of ammonium nitrate in 2019, about 3% of what the country uses fertilizers. In the past 10 years, the volume has varied above 1 million tonnes, and the main supplier has been Russia. Because of its explosive potential, the control of the arrival of ammonium nitrate in Brazil is done by the Army, which defines the conditions for transportation, handling and storage of the product. The Ministry of Agriculture is responsible for supervising the sale of fertilizers and checking the quality criteria and standardization of the input. Experts say that Brazil is very strict in the inspection of ammonium nitrate and that it has increased the rigor even more after the explosion of a port terminal in Tianjin (China), in 2015, and in a factory in Cubatão (SP), in 2017. In 2013, there was also an explosion at a terminal in the port of São Francisco do Sul (SC). In Brazil, the input arrives by ships, which can carry up to 30 thousand tons, and travels around the country in trucks that can load up to 40 tons of the product. All of this is subject to inspection.
Source: GazetaWeb