French President Emmanuel Macron and United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres both took to Twitter to express their concern about the fires which have reached a record number this year, devastating vast swathes of forest considered a vital bulwark against climate change.

Bolsonaro responded angrily to what he regarded as meddling.

“These countries that send money here, they don’t send it out of charity… They send it with the aim of interfering with our sovereignty,” he said in a Facebook Live broadcast.

However, earlier on Thursday, he said that Brazil alone lacked the resources to control the fires.

“The Amazon is bigger than Europe, how will you fight criminal fires in such an area?,” he asked reporters as he left the presidential residence. “We do not have the resources for that.”

Fires in the Amazon have surged 83 per cent so far this year compared with the same period a year earlier, government figures show.

Although fires are a regular and natural occurrence during the dry season at this time of year, environmentalists blamed the sharp rise on farmers setting the forest alight to clear land for pasture.

In that, they may have had at least tacit encouragement from the firebrand right-wing president, who took power in January. Bolsonaro has repeatedly said he believes Brazil should open the Amazon up to business interests, to allow mining, agricultural and logging companies to exploit its natural resources.

On Wednesday, he blamed non-governmental organizations for setting the fires, without providing evidence, but appeared to row back on Thursday, when he said for the first time that farmers could be behind them.

‘International crisis’

Macron took to Twitter to call the Amazon fires an “international crisis” that should be discussed by the G7 summit that will begin on Saturday in Biarritz, France. The Group of Seven rich countries does not include Brazil.

Guterres said he was “deeply concerned” by the fires, adding “we cannot afford more damage to a major source of oxygen and biodiversity.”

Federal prosecutors in Brazil said they were investigating a spike in deforestation and wildfires raging in the Amazon state of Para to determine whether there has been reduced monitoring and enforcement of environmental protections.

Prosecutors said they would look into an ad that they said was published in a local newspaper encouraging farmers to participate in a “Fire Day,” in which they would burn large areas of forest “to show Bolsonaro their willingness to work.”

Brazil is facing growing international criticism over its handling of the Amazon, 60 per cent of which lies in the country.

Earlier this month, Norway and Germany suspended funding for projects to curb deforestation in Brazil after becoming alarmed by changes to the way projects were selected under Bolsonaro.

At the time, when asked about the loss of German funding, Bolsonaro said, “Brazil does not need that.”

Others were less sanguine.

Brazil’s lower house speaker, Rodrigo Maia, said on Twitter he would create “an external committee” to monitor the burning of the rainforest. He also vowed to form a group “to evaluate the situation and propose solutions to the government.”

The Bishops Conference for Latin America expressed concern about the “tragedy,” and on Thursday called on countries to take immediate action to protect the rainforest and nearby communities.

“We urge the governments of the Amazon countries, especially Brazil and Bolivia, the United Nations and the international community to take serious measures to save the world’s lungs,” it said.

Wildfires are also raging in Bolivia, where officials estimate that an area the size of Delaware has burned in recent days.

— Reporting by Eduardo Simoes, Stephen Eisenhammer and Gabriel Araujo in Sao Paulo, Anthony Boadle and Ricardo Brito in Brasilia and Mitra Taj in Lima.

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Since police launched raids on processing plants and company offices in seven states on Friday, President Michel Temer’s government has sought to downplay the crisis in the meatpacking sector, one of the bright spots of an economy struggling with its worst recession on record.

But Hong Kong, Japan, Canada, Mexico and Switzerland all announced partial or all-out bans on Brazilian meat imports on Tuesday, following measures similar to those taken by China, the European Union, South Korea and Chile a day earlier.

South Korea’s ban on all poultry imports from BRF SA , the world’s largest exporter of that meat, was lifted on Tuesday.

Canada’s suspension covers meat imports from two Brazilian plants under investigation, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency said Tuesday, noting both plants were approved to export meat to Canada but neither had done so for six months.

BRF and JBS, the world’s biggest meatpacking company, are among dozens of firms targeted in the police investigation. Both companies have denied any wrongdoing.

China is the largest consumer of Brazilian meat.

“While the investigation by the federal police aims to uncover isolated irregularities in the sanitary inspection system, the facts are directly related to deviations of professional conduct practiced by a few workers,” the joint police and agriculture ministry statement said. “They do not represent a widespread malfunction of the Brazilian system.”

The meat investigation by Brazil’s federal police comes amid a massive three-year investigation into billions of dollars in political kickbacks paid by construction giants to win contracts with state-controlled firms, especially the oil company Petrobras.

That probe has ensnared scores of top politicians, including several ministers in Temer’s centre-right government.

Following a two-year investigation of the meatpacking industry, police have accused more than 100 people, mostly health inspectors, of taking bribes for allowing the sale of rancid products, falsifying export documents or failing to inspect meatpacking plants at all.

In a bid to assuage concerns, Agriculture Minister Blairo Maggi donned white overalls and a white hood to inspect a poultry plant in Parana state on Tuesday.

The plant is one of 21 mentioned in the police probe that has now been barred from exporting meat, though its poultry is still being sold in Brazil.

Praising standards at the plant, Maggi said the problems identified by police were mostly related to allegations of isolated corruption in the regulatory system and not overall unsanitary processing practices.

“The problem isn’t here at the plant; it’s there in the office where there was a problem with one of our employees,” Maggi said, after inspecting the factory where hundreds of workers cut and sorted chicken fillets along a whirring steel conveyor belt.

Maggi, a billionaire soy producer, criticized the “alarmist” way in which police announced their investigation and asked them to release exact details of the cargoes in which they found evidence of unsanitary product.

“Countries are asking us whether these cargoes might have been sent to them and at the moment we can’t answer them,” he said.

— Reporting by Stephen Eisenhammer in Lapa, Brazil; additional reporting by Brad Brooks in Sao Paulo, Dominique Patton in Beijing and Rod Nickel in Winnipeg.

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Mosaic, which made the deal to improve its access to Brazil’s vast agricultural markets, will pay $1.25 billion in cash and $1.25 billion in newly issued shares for the unit.

The deal would give Mosaic, which operates three Canadian potash mine sites in Saskatchewan, control of Vale’s potash mining project at Kronau, Sask., about 30 km southeast of Regina.

Vale will receive an 11 per cent stake in Mosaic, bigger than those held by investment companies such as Vanguard, Franklin Advisers and BlackRock Inc.

After the deal closes, expected by late 2017, Vale will have the right to name two members to Mosaic’s board. It will have to keep the stake for at least two years.

Mosaic shares were down six per cent at $27.76 and Vale’s preferred shares were off 6.3 per cent at 22.79 reais (C$9.05) at the close of trading on Monday. Vale’s shares have risen 127 per cent this year, as iron ore prices recovered, but Mosaic’s shares are up a mere one per cent.

Michael Underhill, chief investment officer of Capital Innovations LLC, a Mosaic shareholder, said he thought the price might have been too high for the U.S. company.

“We believe the price paid and the leverage involved could prove too high/risky, though we understand the ‘once-in-a-lifetime opportunity’ to acquire large assets in the fastest growing agriculture/fertilizer market,” he said.

Excessive global supply and attendant slumping prices are putting pressure on fertilizer makers and leading to consolidations such as a proposed merger between PotashCorp and Agrium.

Brazil is a major producer of fertilizer-intensive crops corn and sugar cane, and is a large importer of such crop nutrients as phosphate, making it a prized market.

“This deal enhances Mosaic’s position as the leading phosphate producer in the world,” Mosaic CEO Joc O’Rourke told investors on a call.

“We’re getting first rate assets at a valuation reflecting the downside of the cycle and we will have the ability to benefit from a strongly growing Brazilian agricultural market as business conditions improve,” he added.

In a video on Vale’s website, CEO Murilo Ferreira said the company never had the opportunity to become a world leader in fertilizers as it has with iron ore and nickel. “So we opted for an association with a highly competitive international company,” he said.

Mosaic said it expects the deal to add to earnings per share by 2018. Brazilian unit will become Mosaic’s largest by trading volume, surpassing North America, Floris Bielders, the president of Mosaic’s Brazilian unit, told Reuters, adding that the North Americas unit will still lead in production.

Vale said that it will use the proceeds to reduce net debt, which stands at nearly $26 billion, according to the company’s latest quarterly results.

Vale, which posted a record $12.1 billion loss last year, is selling assets after years of low iron ore prices that have slammed its balance sheet.

It will retain control of its nitrogen and phosphate fertilizer assets in Cubatao, a city in southeast Brazil, but said it expects to sell them in 2017.

Sources with knowledge of the deal told Reuters in October that Vale was also in talks to sell some of its fertilizer assets to Norway’s Yara International ASA. In a note to clients on Monday, Credit Suisse analysts estimated the remaining fertilizers assets may be worth $625 million.

In addition to Vale’s phosphate assets in Brazil, Mosaic will acquire Vale’s stake in Peru’s Bayovar mine as well as the Kronau project. Mosaic has yet to decide whether to include Vale’s Rio Colorado potash project in Argentina in the acquisition.

Plymouth, Minnesota-based Mosaic may pay an additional $260 million depending on future earnings of the fertilizer unit, the two companies said.

Analysts at Banco BTG Pactual estimate Mosaic is paying 8.6 times the fertilizer division’s earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA), a gauge of operational profit, calling it an attractive multiple.

On June 17, Reuters was first to report on the talks between Mosaic and Vale.

— Reporting for Reuters by Stephen Eisenhammer and Gustavo Bonato. Additional reporting for Reuters by Tatiana Bautzer and Bruno Federowski in Sao Paulo and Rod Nickel in Winnipeg.

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“Trade is becoming a front line for conflicts over resources — at a time when the global economy is more dependent than ever on trade in resources,” states a report from London-based Chatham House.

“Higher prices and higher volatility have increased the stakes within and between countries.

It recommends forming a group of the top 30 resource producers and consumers to work together to iron out sharp price changes and reduce protectionism.

As only eight countries produce the majority of the world’s commodities and demand keeps rising, prices are very prone to fluctuations and this, rather than outright scarcity, is set to be the major difficulty, the think-tank said.

The size of fluctuations in commodity prices has more than tripled since 2005 compared to the period from 1980, says the report, citing International Monetary Fund data.

“If you look at what the initial reasons were for people hitting the streets in North Africa during the Arab Spring a lot of it started off with people being angry about the price of bread,” said Rob Bailey, one of the report’s authors.

Unlike previous waves of volatility, the current period of fluctuating commodity prices is not driven by a fundamental crisis such as a world war or great depression, he said.

“We don’t have that kind of obvious crucial factor this time — it appears to be an actual structural change in the way the global economy has organized itself,” he said.

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