Fertilizer Crisis: Why Was It So Difficult for the Government to Buy Urea?

Head of the Ministry of Agrarian Development and Land Reclamation, Andres Alencastreannounced that the latest urea purchase process was terminated after the supplier company refused to negotiate.

Unsuccessful purchase. fertilizer The government leaves the population with many questions. Former Minister of Agriculture Juan Manuel Benítez and former director of Agrorural Marco Vinelli analyzed some of the issues that arise from this situation.

Why was buying carbamide so difficult for the government?

Benítez believes that the urea procurement process was poorly planned from the beginning, exacerbated by the presence of people who did not have the capacity and knowledge to develop the process.

“It seems to me that there were two things: the problem of disability and, on the other hand, Controller reported at some point some signs of corruption, this is a bad combination if we have officials who do not have sufficient capacity and who also commit non-transparent actions,” said the president of the CRECER Institute.

Vinelli agrees that the process of purchasing fertilizers was difficult for the state due to the lack of experience of those involved in the purchase, and the inexperience of the minister himself.

“They didn’t make adequate grounds for the competition, they didn’t take into account, for example, national suppliers, as well as other observations what the prosecutor’s office did in its time,” he claims.

Can this really be considered the responsibility of the company?

Minister Alencastre blamed the Italian company Unionsped for the failed urea purchase, arguing that the company behaved inappropriately and abandoned the purchase process.

But given that this is not the first time this process has been declared invalid, does the responsibility really lie with Unionspeed?

“I think there is a shared responsibility. After three unsuccessful trials, it is at least easy to say that this is the company’s problem, if it was the first trial, we could give it a presumption of doubt (midagri), but after three trials, I think it is negligence, the inability of the state apparatus” , says Benitez.

For Vinelli, this situation is not the responsibility of the company, since the Contractor did not provide security and predictability for all bidders so that the contract could be signed.

“Here, the only responsible person is the executive, headed by Minister Alencastre, and this is because, according to the norm, when the process is completed and when they pass to the third bidder, the organization sends him the document and asks him whether he accepts or not. to accept. The entity should have given him deadlines, talked to them more effectively to get a faster response,” he said.

What next step should the government take?

Both experts believe that the promotion of a bonus program for farmers would be ideal.

“The next step that the government should take is to completely abandon the purchase of carbamide, now it is necessary to prepare a good design for the direct subsidy program that it is going to implement. To do this, the issue of transparency is being solved, it is very important how beneficiaries are selected in the list of users, there should be delivery control, there should be control of use, follow-up actions,” Benitez said.

The former minister also considered that it would be necessary to control the delivery of these “Fertiabonos” to prevent their use for proselytizing purposes, given that we are in the electoral process.

Vinelli also considered it necessary to make changes to the teams that will carry out the new actions that Midagri will carry out to support agricultural producers.

“I think the resources should be given to the Fertiabono that they have announced, I think there should be oxygenation in this sector in regards to the person who leads such policies and more responsibility of the executive when making proposals. I think it is inappropriate to play with the needs of farmers,” he said.

For his part, Benítez added that the announcement of the purchase fertilizer This caused expectations among small farmers, and now it is possible “that next year there will be interruptions in the supply of products.”

How many times has it been said that he will reach the urea?

At the beginning of June Agro Rural invalidated the first process of purchasing fertilizers on not “meet the technical specifications requested from companies bidders for the user area”. In the same time The controller warned about the risks because this process did not provide adequate measures to guarantee the timely supply of this key resource for agriculture.

On June 11, Andres Alencastre, who led Midagri for 4 days, announced that By July 11, the first batch of carbamide will arrive in the country. Nonetheless, this promise was not kept.

June 13, after the second call, company Brazilian company MF Fertilizers wins Good Pro award purchase of fertilizers. It was found that the first batch of carbamide in the amount of 40 thousand tons enters the country within 35 days. In other words, fertilizer bags will be available in July. But it wasn’t.

Ten days later, on June 23, this second tender was canceled Due to warnings from the controller and MF Fertilizers, this was excluded from the process. On that day, the head of Midagri indicated that tons of this raw material would arrive on August 4th.

However, this proposal was diluted. July 6 Minister of Agrarian Development and Irrigation again guaranteed that receipt of the first batch of carbamide it should have been between 15 and 18 August, but it wasn’t.

In the middle third call, versions of the arrival were constantly changing. On July 16, Alencastre once again guaranteed that the arrival The first batch of urea will be in Peru between August and September..

In the middle third call, versions of the arrival were constantly changing. On July 16, Alencastre once again guaranteed that the arrival The first batch of urea will be in Peru between August and September.. Although he indicated to another local media that it would begin to be distributed from the second half of August.

For July 28, in his message to the nation, President Pedro Castillo adjusted the calendar and stated that fertilizers will be in warehouses in August ready for distribution. This was not the case either.

On August 2, it became known that the North American company LLC “Redi Oil Supply” Won a good pro buying fertilizer. In this regard, it was reported that the first batch would arrive by the end of September..

Alencastre later announced that his sector had decided to disqualify Ready Oil Supply as a supplier of carbamide. as a result of the controller’s comments.

As a result, the Italian company Unionsped SRL was selected, which took third place in the tender, but eventually withdrew from the process a day before the deadline for signing the contract.