With an investment of 15 thousand 500 million pesos (mdp), the federal government intends to increase production from 1.6 million tons
Despite this perspective and in a complex scenario due to the Russia-Ukraine War, during the next few years Mexico will continue to depend on urea from abroad –which it imports in around 30% of that region–, of which it consumes 1.5 million tons per year ; in 2020 it produced just 20 thousand t of it.
Within the framework of the Conference Fertilizers and Production for Well-beingorganized by the Sader Food Undersecretary, it was reported that Pemex will produce 1.5 million ammonia starting in 2024, at the Coasoalacaque plant, Veracruz, from where it will be sent to the Pajaritos complex to produce one million tons of fertilizer.
With the reactivation of the fertilizer plants, Mexico will go from producing 700,000 tons in 2019 to close to 3 million tons and “we would stop importing ammonium sulfate,” said the commercial director of Grupo Fertinal de Pemex, Marbeth Angulo Rodríguez.
He explained that in phosphate fertilizers said entity will go from producing an average of 600 thousand t to one million 600 thousand t by 2024; in nitrogenous from 200 thousand to 280 thousand; in urea from 180 thousand last year to almost 900 thousand; in ammonia, a greater capacity of 300,000 t, one million 500,000 t, which will be produced in four plants.
The goal that the federal government has outlined – emphasized Marbeth Angulo – is so great that the importation of urea will be required; although, she projected that by 2024 this input will stop being purchased abroad, in addition to phosphate fertilizers.
In her speech, the expert noted that Pemex has produced an average of 61% of the fertilizer from the federal government support program delivered to producers through the fertilizer program between January 2019 and December 2022; by 2023, 70% can be covered; by 2024 it will reach 84% and at the end of that year it will reach 100%.
Angulo Rodríguez recalled that Pemex acquired two fertilizer complexes: Agro nitrogenous now Pro-Agroindustria and Grupo Fertinal at a premium and deteriorated. It also has four ammonia production plants in Cosoleacaque, Veracruz, as well as facilities in Camargo, Coahuila. He emphasized that
the present administration managed to enable the Coatzacoalcos plant after 21 years without operating and recover ammonia production. As of October 2020, urea is produced in Mexico
Extension of chemical fertilizer program highlighted
At the beginning of the conference, the head of Sader, Víctor Villalobos Arámbula, specified that this year the coverage of Fertilizers for Well-being will imply one million tons for the benefit of two million farmers, to attend three million hectares of 32 entities of the country.
He recalled that this program began in 2019 in the state of Guerrero, which increased its coverage and in 2022 in the face of the difficult international scenario (due to the Russia-Ukraine war), it was expanded to nine entities: with the addition of Chiapas, Oaxaca, Durango , Nayarit and Zacatecas and attention to 824 thousand producers, coverage of one million hectares and the delivery of 313 thousand tons of fertilizer.
He highlighted the firm commitment to the timely delivery of the input in the first half of the year, with more than 24,000 mobile units for its distribution, which will also generate three million direct jobs in food production, 30,000 in the plants of distribution and more than 100,000 wages for transportation and unloading of the input.
For his part, the Undersecretary of Food Self-Sufficiency of Sader, Víctor Suárez Carrera, highlighted the importance of the federal government rescuing Pemex to reactivate the fertilizer production plant and move towards food self-sufficiency.
Since Carlos Salinas de Gortari’s six-year term, he remarked, Pemex has not produced even a ton of fertilizers, since the State production plant that produced these inputs was privatized and dismantled, and now, with the government of the Fourth Transformation, “despite having received that dismantled plant in scrap condition, it is producing more and more and it is foreseeable that by the end of 2024, Pemex will generate all the fertilizer required by the Fertilizers for Well-being program”.
With these public policies, he emphasized, Mexico is leading the country towards energy sovereignty and food sovereignty, which is vital today amid uncertainties generated by the war between Russia and Ukraine and the risk of it escalating.
During his speech, the federal official highlighted that the Sowing Life, Production for Well-being, Fertilizers for Well-being and Guaranteed Price programs together add up to 82 billion pesos and serve 2.5 million producers.
He emphasized that chemical fertilizers by themselves do not increase production, even poorly applied they can further damage soils, make them more acidic and sterile. For this reason, he insisted that there are alternatives and that the agroecological transition is promoted.
The general director of Direct Productive Support of Sader, Carmina Enciso Sánchez, highlighted that by 2023, the President of the Republic instructed that all verified producers of Production for Well-being grains receive priority support from the fertilizer program.
He added that the delivery of fertilizers is focused on producers of the main grains for food and the Production for Well-being standard adds up to 1,687,000 producers of these grains, who would be the candidates to receive fertilizers this year. Only those who grow corn add up to 1.5 million in the 32 states of the country.
