Russia, which is subject to one of the largest sanctions packages from the western powers, recorded a 95% increase in exports to Brazil between January and July 2022. The data comes from the Ministry of Economy and . Some of Brazil’s traditional trading partners.
Since February, the Russian government has been under trade, financial and diplomatic embargoes by the United States and Europe. The measures were taken because of the invasion of Ukraine and in the hope of suffocating the Russian economy.
But President Vladimir Putin has made it clear that he will direct his sales. In fact, this was the message he conveyed to other countries at the BRICS summit in June, formed by Russia, as well as China, India, Brazil and South Africa.
At Itamaraty, negotiators told the UOL that in the first months of the war in Ukraine, there was strong pressure by the Americans and Europeans on Brazil to stick to the Jair Bolsonaro government’s attempts to isolate Russia.
There was also a backlash of distrust towards the Brazilian president after he visited the Kremlin on the eve of Russia’s invasion of Ukrainian territory. More recently, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has criticized Bolsonaro’s stance on the war.
In mid-July, the two presidents spoke on the phone. Announcing his meeting with Bolsonaro, Zelensky said in a statement on his social media account, “I want all trading partners to participate in the sanctions against the aggressor.”
However, the Planalto Palace did not respond to requests to comply with the sanctions and continued dialogue with the Kremlin, including abstaining from UN resolutions against Putin. In some debates, Brazilian diplomacy even criticized the sanctions against Russia, warning that the measures could lead to a significant increase in world hunger.
Without any sanctions, official data confirms that Russia’s flow with Brazil is expanding. Between January and July 2021, the country imported a total of $2.6 billion from Russia. In the first seven months of 2022, the account grew to $5.1 billion.
In the same period, Brazil increased its imports from all over the world by 32% on average. Thus, if in 2021 Russian products accounted for 2.2% of all Brazilian imports, today they already occupy 3.3% of national purchases.
Russia, which ranked 11th in the list of countries with the highest share in the Brazilian market in 2021, is currently in the fifth place.
With the increase in flow, Russia today exceeded the sales of Mexico, South Korea, Japan, Canada and the accumulation of all the countries of the Andean Community. At the current rate, it is not excluded that the volume may exceed the purchases of Argentine products by Brazil in the first seven months of the year, whose value today is 7.1 billion dollars.
Two aspects were weighed. The first of these was the real increase in fuel prices and the resulting increase in value of imports to Brazil. The same phenomenon occurred even among Europeans and other partners.
However, diplomatic sources said that another important aspect was Brazil’s decision to promote fertilizer imports from Russia, precisely assuring the supply for Brazilian agriculture.
One of the fears was that the sanctions would affect the ability to transport and finance cargo.
Brazil agrees to buy Russian diesel
The expectation in Brazil is that the trade flow will continue at an intense pace. In fact, between July 2021 and July 2022, the increase in imports from Russia was 127%, one of the biggest jumps among Brazil’s main trading partners.
UOL has found that Brazil still has a license from the Russian government to start importing diesel, in a maneuver aimed at helping to lower fuel prices in the country.
According to diplomats, there is currently a negotiation to set prices and conditions for this import.
In June, Jair Bolsonaro signaled that the issue was part of his dialogue with Vladimir Putin.
During the war, Brazil’s exports to Russia also increased. But at a much lower rate. According to the official data of the Ministry of Economy, the volume, which was 843 million dollars in 2021, increased to 1.1 billion in 2022.
source: Noticias
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