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22 May, 2009
Interview with brazilian producer Joao Carlos de Souza Meirelles. His company, Frontera Norte, is working on the development of new agricultural zones, founded three cities and colonized one million hectares, mostly in Mato Grosso. Strong commitment to energy sugar cane. Frontera Norte IngenierÃa de Desarrollo Limitada is a company with over 30 years in the development of large zones of new agricultural frontiers of Brazil. “We did what we call in Portuguese, colonization.” said to “La Voz del Campo†the engineer Joao Carlos de Souza Meirelles, group member and former secretary of agriculture of the state of San Pablo. Coming from a family of Portuguese immigrants but with several generations among Brazilian farmers, De Souza Meirelles is one of the “fathers” of the raise of Brazil as the first world exporter of beef. He also participated in Cordoba as a speaker in the first Argentine-Brazilian Corporate Bioenergy Summit. He explained that the ventures of Frontera Norte opened opportunities for farmers in southern Brazil with large families who sought new lands for themselves and their children. “To give an example, we have developed rural activities in the state of Mato Grosso in more than one million hectares. These were virgin lands, we did projects, soil´s studies, nature conservation and build cities. I have built three cities on this new frontier, ” De Souza boastful. - What economic units are we talking about? Near the cities are small plots for vegetables, fruit farmers who supply urban areas, ranging from one to five hectares. Then, properties that can range from 120 to 250 acres, and ranging from 250 to 2500 or 5000 acres. And more distant from these towns, properties can have 25 thousand acres. - And in the field of bioenergy, which projects has the company? In the past two years we have developed a very important project for forming a cluster of bioenergy, it is not a factory or an industry, but a set of three large projects. Each one will plant 60 thousand hectares of sugar cane, a total of 180 thousand hectares. The are about 80 kilometers from one another so the total production reaches one billion liters of ethanol per year, and also electricity will be produced. The industrial part is final study, the construction will be contracted in 2010 and the first unit will start producing in 2012, the second in 2014 and third in 2016. There is a concern about relative prices, with oil at $ 57 a barrel and soybeans to more than $ 400 a tonne in Chicago. How does this affect the business of biofuels? -First, the relative prices of oil impacting the entire side of farming inputs (fertilizers and defense derivates). Secondly, for us to produce ethanol and electricity in Brazil, if oil is above the $ 40 we are absolutely competitive with ethanol. And all the experts in the world are convinced that the level of oil prices will stabilize in the coming years around the $ 60. And we are looking increasingly competitive, in five to 10 years we can be competitive with oil $35 or $ 37 a barrel. In Argentina, and in Córdoba there is great expertise in producing agricultural commodities.  What do you recommended to guide investment in agro-bio? -It would be much pretension to make recommendations, but I would allow myself a reflection: what are the problems that farmers, were they from Argentina, Brazil or anywhere, have experienced in the past. 50 years ago we were not the most important thing in our economy because our countries lived of our productions of wheat, corn, meat, coffee. What happened? The generations that came imagined that only the industry was the national salvation and peasants, were considered the second in importance. The great revolution is changing the notion that we are not producers of raw materials but a very important part of the production chain. And if we do not organize the production chain, we are always going to be the absorbers of international prices. The other always win, and we, the producers, are compressed in terms of prices. But if we participate in the organization of the productive chain, of the concepts of price formation and increased productivity, we will be the most important in the chain. Carlos Petroli Source: La Voz/ Córdoba / Argentina Deje un comentario |
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