Brazilian senators accused the country's former foreign minister of undermining efforts to obtain Covid-19 vaccines after he used anti-China rhetoric during the pandemic.

In a parliamentary inquiry into far-right President Jair Bolsonaro's handling of the world's second-deadliest outbreak of the novel coronavirus, senators blamed the president and his inner circle for delays in deliveries from China of active ingredients to make Sinovac Biotech Ltd's vaccine in Brazil.

Ernesto Araujo, who was replaced as foreign minister in March, told senators that Bolsonaro's disparagement of the Chinese vaccine did not impact relations with Brazil's largest trade partner or delay vaccine supplies.

Senator Katia Abreu, a farmer and former agriculture minister, said Araujo's views and those of the Bolsonaro government have hurt exports to China, where approval of dozens of Brazilian meatpacking plants has been held up in Beijing.