Journal of Haiti and the Americas
War in Ukraine: Can Brazil compensate for grain exports?
Audio 7:30 p.m.
Brazil, one of the world's largest grain producers, plans to increase its corn exports after the Russian invasion of Ukraine, but fears the conflict will make it difficult for it to import fertilizer.
© AFP/Nani Gois
By: Mikaël Ponge Follow |
Mikael Ponge Follow
3 mins
What if the wheat runs out?
The UN fears a "hurricane of famine", particularly in Africa, as a result of the war in eastern Europe.
Russia and Ukraine together account for almost a third of world grain exports.
Brazil, the world's third-largest maize exporter, does not seem able to take over.
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If we have talked a lot about oil and the peaks reached on the markets for the price of a barrel of crude, the prices of cereals are also panicking.
Russia and Ukraine account for around 30% of world exports in this field, mainly to North Africa and the Middle East.
All eyes are on other exporting countries, such as Brazil.
But if the country "
will be able to increase its exports mainly to meet the additional demand from China, its main outlet, it will not be able to compensate for what Russia and Ukraine provide
", summarizes our guest Jean-Yves Carfantan , consultant specializing in agriculture in Brazil.
This is due in particular to "
a bad 2020-2021 campaign, due to the lack of rain
“, explains this expert.
Yields were therefore lower than expected, and the coming campaign will suffer from the problem of fertilizers.
More than 20% of the fertilizers imported by Brazil, the largest economy in Latin America, come from Russia, its main supplier.
"
Farmers who bought their fertilizer a few months ago will probably not be delivered in full and those who waited to buy it will have to either forgo it or pay very high prices
", according to Jean-Yves Carfantan.
And to conclude “
fertilizer inputs will be much lower, or zero.
Yields will therefore be much lower, so a bad harvest in the long term
is to be feared.
USA: first auditions for Ketanji Brown Jackson, candidate for the Supreme Court
Appointed by Joe Biden to the Supreme Court of the United States, Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson must convince, from this Monday, March 21, the senators to validate this historic choice and make her the first black woman to sit on the influential institution.
This brilliant 51-year-old lawyer will be heard by the Judiciary Committee of the Upper House of Congress until Thursday, before a vote in plenary probably in early April.
If she gets the green light from elected officials, she will sit from next school year on the most mixed Supreme Court in American history, with three other women and an African-American magistrate.
In Peru, the anti-Castillo in the street
“
Castillo, the people repudiate you
”.
The slogan was chanted on Sunday March 20 in Lima where several collectives and political parties marched to demand the departure of President Pedro Castillo who is struggling to bring political stability to Peru.
He, who has already appointed 50 ministers in just eight months, is facing a second dismissal procedure.
Proponents of impeachment accuse the president, among other things, of irregularities in the appointment of senior police and armed forces officers, contradictions and lies during tax investigations and "
questionable
" appointments of at least ten ministers.
Congress will debate and vote on it next Monday, March 28, 2022.
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Pedro Castillo
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