Crop Protection and Nutrition - Weekly Update Brazil & Latin America (09/26/24 – 10/02/24)

In compliance with a court decision, Anvisa approves the toxicological evaluation of picloram technical, from Iharabras; and thidiazuron technical, from Rainbow. (Anvisa)

Grupo Portal Agro, of inputs distribution and grain farming in the State of Pará, has requested judicial reorganization. The group filed a confidential judicial recovery request on September 5^th. The debt is near US$ 128.51 million. The judge responsible for the case, after a preliminary analysis, removed the confidentiality of the case on September 26^th and called on the Public Prosecutor’s Office and the largest creditors. (2nd Civil and Business Court of Paragominas of the State of Pará’s Court of Justice)

Storage pests can cause loss of up to 10% of grain stocks. “In addition to the loss in quantity, we need to consider qualitative losses, which can compromise all the grains produced”, said the Regulatory Affairs manager of the National Union of the Plant Defense Products Industry, Fábio Kagi. Fumigation of stocks can be carried out preventively with inorganic insecticides based on aluminum phosphide, a precursor to phosphine. “The exposure time of the product varies according to the environmental conditions during application. Therefore, the temperature of 25℃ is ideal for carrying out the process”, he highlights. (Sindiveg)

Finep invests US$ 530 thousand in research with bacteria to replace chemical fertilizers. The project is called “Bioprospecting of cultivable endophytic bacteria and their use in national agriculture as new growth-promoting agents in plants”. The objective is to deliver bioinputs, free of charge, to farmers. (Finep)

Total deliveries of fertilizers to the market fell 1.8% from January to July of 2024 when compared to the same period of 2023, according to a survey by the National Association for Fertilizer Diffusion. In total, the first six months of 2024 totaled 18.28 million tonnes of fertilizers. (ANDA)

Ministry of Agriculture has approved 16 registrations of technical products, reaching 124 in 2024. (MAPA)

Banco do Brasil (Bank of Brazil) has started a campaign to avoid requests for judicial reorganization in agriculture. “The judicial recovery process for farmers is not healthy,” said the vice president of internal controls and risk management, Felipe Prince. “It puts the farmers’ assets, which are their lands, at risk and closes off the possibility of new credit concessions for them”. (Banco do Brasil)

Ministry of Agrarian Development defends tax exemption for family farming to purchase inputs. In a hearing on Tax Reform in the Senate, Arnoldo de Campos, director of operations and supply at Conab, defended mechanisms that help the competitiveness of those with revenues below US$ 660 thousand. “We have the challenge of evaluating how tax reform will impact these farmers. With almost four million family farming establishments, it is crucial that taxation does not harm this sector”. (Conab; MDA)

Belém, State of Paraná, will host the “II National Agricultural Inputs Seminar – Senagri” in June/2025. Promoted by the Brazilian Society for Agricultural Defense, the event should feature more than 70 technical lectures, 10 institutional meetings, as well as round tables and mini conferences. (Senagri)

Secretariat of Agriculture, Livestock, Sustainable Production and Irrigation of the State of Rio Grande do Sul began in September, and will conduct until March of 2025, the monitoring program for the occurrence of Diaphorina citri, the insect vector of greening, in citrus orchards. Greening is caused by the bacterium Candidatus liberibacter and has been causing major losses in the world’s citrus industry, but has not yet been recorded in the State. (Seapi-RS)

For Luigi Wis, specialist at Genial Investimentos, the AgroGalaxy crisis should serve as a reminder to investors that it is possible to also have losses in fixed income investments. “It is a very educational event for the investor to understand that fixed income investments are not risk-free. In fixed income you lend money and, if they don’t pay you back, you lose it”, said Wis. (Genial Investimentos)

By the beginning of the 2H of September, only 42% of the fertilizers destined for the second corn season of 2025 had already been purchased by farmers. This level, despite being in line with that recorded in the same period last year for the 2024 off-season, is 13% lower than the average of the last 5 seasons. (Agrinvest)

On September 30^th, the Civil Police of Mato Grosso complied with court orders against a farmer identified as a financier and collaborator of a criminal group specializing in theft of pesticides. Preventive arrest, search and seizure warrants were served, as well as the seizure of assets and blocking of more than US$ 310 thousand. (Civil Police of Mato Grosso)

The Plant Health manager of the Agricultural Defense Agency of the State of Goiás, Daniela Rézio, reports that the Agency will incinerate 8 tonnes of irregular pesticides in October. “Waste incineration is the important process of burning pesticide waste in incinerators specific to this activity, avoiding contamination of the environment and ensuring the safety of workers and the population in general”, said the president of the Agency, José Caixeta Ramos. (Agrodefesa)

Projeto Coexistência (Coexistence Project), from Syngenta, monitored more than 214 million bees in 2023. In partnership with GeoApis, the project uses an application that allows farmers to issue alerts about the application of pesticides, establishing safety zones around the hives. The program has already mapped more than 500 thousand hectares, monitoring around 1.4 billion bees. (Syngenta)

Researchers at Universidade Federal Fluminense have developed a method for producing green pesticides from biomass waste. With support from the Carlos Chagas Filho Research Support Foundation of the State of Rio de Janeiro, the project has already resulted in a patent. “Our method is very promising, because, from waste that was being thrown away into the environment, we are able to generate assets with several useful applications”, said the project coordinator and professor at the institution, Evelize Folly das Chagas. Among the products developed are tablets to control insects in stored grains, such as Rhyzopertha dominica and Sitophilus zeamais. (UFF)

Justice Court has partially upheld the action proposed by the Public Prosecutor’s Office of the State of Mato Grosso and declared null and void two articles of State Decree No. 1651/2013, which reduced to 90 m the minimum distance from population centers (neighborhoods, towns, villages, etc.) required for land application of pesticides. In the sentence, it was established that the terrestrial application of pesticides and similar products has to be restricted to the treated area, being: 300 m from towns, cities, villages, neighborhoods and water sources to supply the population; 150 m of water sources, isolated houses and groups of animals; and 200 m from springs, even if intermittent. (MPMT)

In areas planted with soybean from September to October of 2023, in the Center-West, Southeast and Matopiba (States of Maranhão, Tocantins, Piauí and Bahia) regions, there were changes in the productive potential of crops due to the simultaneous infestation of caterpillars and stink bugs. “Farmers have observed this, and have increased the mixtures of pesticides in the spraying tanks. In the 2023/24 season, the area applied with pesticides mixtures, to control caterpillars and stink bugs, increased by 31% when compared to the previous season”, according to Fábio Lemos, crop and portfolio manager at FMC. Among the caterpillars, the greatest concern continues to be Spodoptera spp. The brown stink bug (Euschistus heros) and the green belly bug (Dichelops melacanthus) have also increased their attacks on soybeans. (FMC)

Jalles, a sugar and ethanol company, participated in a meeting with representatives from the Xamano Group, a Chinese multinational, and the government of GO, in Goiânia. Xamano Group is considering investing in the state to produce liquid ammonia. Jalles was present at the meeting as a possible future consumer of ammonia, which can be used as fertilizer in its agricultural operations. (Jalles)

Lavoro issued an official statement on speculation of financial instability, after AgroGalaxy’s request for judicial recovery put the market on alert. “Lavoro is fully capable of meeting its financial commitments”. (Lavoro Agro)

Law No. 14989/24 came into force on September 26^th, which indicates new tools to face phytosanitary or animal health emergencies in Brazil. The rule authorizes the Union to donate materials and equipment to states and municipalities to combat outbreaks of pests in crops or diseases in animals, without the need for prior compliance with tax obligations by the beneficiaries. (DOU)

“The Brazilian agricultural sector is highly dispersed, which limits the possibility of a financial crisis spreading”, says Volnei Eyng, CEO of the management company Multiplike. The request for judicial reorganization by AgroGalaxy, one of the largest agricultural input networks in Brazil, is not expected to cause widespread contamination in agricultural credit. (Multiplike)

Specialty fertilizers company Sulgesso and the City of Uberaba, State of Minas Gerais, have signed a protocol of intentions and announced investments of approximately US$ 19.15 million for the construction of a new industrial complex in the city, with 420 thousand m². (Sulgesso)

Research carried out by the IAC showed that the bacteria that causes leaf scald (Xanthomonas albilineans) in sugarcane, the main bacterial disease of the crop, is transmitted by the root leafhopper. The insect vector carries the bacteria and transfers it to healthy plants. According to IAC’s researcher Silvana Creste, the development of varieties resistant to the leafhopper could be one of the strategies to control this. (IAC)

After President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva’s speech about pesticides in Brazil, representatives of the industry reacted with indignation, as was the case of Christian Lohbauer, former executive president of CropLife Brasil. “Brazil only has products that are used here that are not used in Europe because Europe has already approved new products that Brazil cannot approve. This is because Anvisa and Ibama resist the approval of new molecules”, said Lohbauer. “Agrochemicals still have no replacement. Biological products will be able to replace most of the chemicals, but they are evolving. They represent only 5% of the market for tropical agriculture”. (CropLife Brasil)

Three men were arrested in Uberaba, State of Minas Gerais, suspected of participating in the theft of pesticides valued at US$ 73.29. In addition to the arrest warrants served on September 26^th, the Civil Police’s Rural Crimes Repression Department executed four search and seizure warrants. (Civil Police)

MAPA publishes “Bioinputs as an alternative to chemical fertilizers for grasses: an analysis of the sector’s innovation aspects”. The objective of the study was to analyze, within the Brazilian bioinputs sector, possible alternatives to chemical fertilizers for grasses. (MAPA)

FMC announced an agreement with Ballagro to offer bioinputs. The partnership is part of FMC’s strategy to expand its biologics platform in key markets, such as Brazil. Renato Guimarães, president of FMC for Latin America, stated that the demand for new sustainable technologies has increased. (FMC Corporation; Ballagro Agro Tecnologia)

“Multisite” fungicides market showed significant growth from 2018/19 to 2022/23. Transactions involving these products increased 218%, from US$ 220 million to US$ 700 million. For 2024/25, the scenario appears unstable due to a delicate moment, with logistical problems regarding the import and supply of assets that could result in a lack of protective or multi-site fungicides for farmers. (Kynetec Brasil; Biotrop)