Russia has good prospects for supplying LNG to Brazil - Russian ambassador to Brazil

BRASILIA. May 25 (Interfax) - Russia has good prospects for exporting liquefied natural gas (LNG) to Brazil, Alexey Labetsky, Russian ambassador to Brazil, told journalists at a meeting of the Russian-Brazilian intergovernmental commission in Brasilia on Monday.

"The prospects aren't bad - we can discuss exporting liquefied natural gas here, although we are only at the first stage of the journey for this," the ambassador said.

He said that Brazil was Russia's main trading partner in Latin America and that the two countries had traded $10.5 billion of goods last year, according to statistics data from Brazil.

"This is an excellent goods turnover. It is primarily based on exports of Russian fertilizers, all types of fertilizers. We supply the local market with around 30% of what the Brazilian agricultural industry needs. And secondly, we are currently one of the main suppliers of diesel. Diesel is the fuel which guarantees the functioning of the Brazilian agricultural industry, because all of the produce from the country's internal regions is mainly shipped to ports via road transport. In terms of Brazil's exports to Russia, these are primarily agricultural products - meat, nuts and tobacco. The main task before us is diversifying goods trade in order to expand the product range, in order to establish strong links between various categories of industry," Labetsky said.

"We have good prospects for developing collaboration in the field of energy. We are the main supplier of radioactive elements for the medical industry here. The main task today is to diversify our goods turnover and find solutions for new logistical and financial challenges," he said.

He said that another important area was technological collaboration in the field of energy, including nuclear energy.

"We hope to see a representative Brazilian delegation at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum," Labetsky said.