Data collected by a shipping company indicate that China was the second-biggest supplier of fertiliser to Brazil in the first quarter of this year, Reuters reports.

The news agency says figures given by Cargonave Group last week show Brazil imported 10.43 million tonnes of fertiliser in the first quarter, 27.4 per cent more than a year earlier.

Farmers in Brazil are scrambling to adjust as prices of fertiliser soar and Western sanctions against Russia and Belarus, both big on suppliers of fertiliser, threaten to constrict shipments in future, Reuters says.

Separately, Bloomberg reports that Brazilian farmers may resort to using Chinese intermediaries and paying in yuan to dodge the sanctions and obtain one sort of fertilizer, potash, from Belarus.

The news agency quotes Agrinvest Commodities analyst Jeferson Souza as saying companies in Brazil are “up for business in almost all ways: payments, barter, exchanges”.