To understand the impact of the war between Russia and Ukraine on global and regional agri-food security, the Latin American Integration Association (ALADI), organized the webinar “Fertilizers and Agribusiness: challenges for food security in the face of the war in Ukraine”, in the prior to the Week of Fertilizers in Business Connection, a tool at the service of businessmen to promote the search for alternative supply sources in the region.
The secretary general of ALADI, Sergio Abreu, began the webinar by highlighting the organization’s effort to “bring together digital instruments that meet the difficulties that arise at a global level, in particular due to the tragic circumstance of a war that we have to condemn and avoid.
Russia and Ukraine are leaders in the market for cereals and fertilizers, so the conflict affects international trade in these products, in addition to putting international food and energy security at risk, with impacts on the 13 countries that make up ALADI.
“Our region is the most unequal on the planet. Due to the pandemic, more than 30 million jobs have disappeared, and now, with the increase in prices, the poverty rate tends to increase in general terms because the Siamese sister of war is inflation, the most insensitive tax, on everything for consumers who live on low incomes”, explained Abreu.
What happens with the fertilizer market is important for the ALADI countries, since 96% of the import of these products comes from outside the region, whose production chain is based on food production. In this sense, the secretary general maintained that there is a “strategic contradiction between a region that imports inputs for its production but does not find elements that facilitate exchange protected by tariff preferences of treaties between countries.”
In this regard, he explained that if an intra-regional production system could be established, businessmen would benefit from 97% less tariffs on fertilizers and 86% less on cereals.
Abreu emphasized the importance of uniting the political will with businessmen and the instruments that are required to have more investment, employment and social peace, and for this reason he expressed that with the Business Connection tool developed by ALADI, companies that export or import this product will be able to “seek specific answers to see how supply problems are solved, and also questions in the medium term”.
Next, it was the turn of Roberto Rodrigues, coordinator of the Agribusiness Center of the Getulio Vargas Foundation School of Economics, who spoke about the perspectives and possible responses from Brazil, and argued that there must be “strong support from governments with credits and guarantees” for entrepreneurs in this sector.
Then William Arteaga, former Deputy Minister of Agriculture of Peru, spoke and gave a general overview of agribusiness and the challenges of that country in the current situation, and Omar Alarcón, National Vice President of Operations of the Bolivian oil company YPFB, who He referred to the situation in Bolivia and its urea fertilizer plant.
Before closing, Ambassador Enrique Delgado, from the General Directorate of Integration and Mercosur of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Uruguay, gave a talk on the challenges for food-producing countries and intra-regional trade, and highlighted the role of ALADI as the “a natural environment for member countries to develop joint strategies with modern and flexible formats, which allow generating greater synergy between regional and global openness.”
By way of conclusion, Abreu argued that ALADI’s instruments make it possible to “combat inequality, open up opportunities and give our countries less external dependence, showing that the effort is worthwhile, and that SMEs are supported so that after the difficulties can find a solution.
The “Fertilizer Week in Business Connection” will take place from Monday 4 to Friday 8 April. During the five days there will be an online agenda through which ALADI officials will answer queries and offer technical assistance to companies that are operating in the tool and require it.
Those interested in participating can register their company and the products they demand or offer in the link pymesgrandes Negocios.org/conexion-empresarial.
