John Deere President in Brazil, Paulo Hermann, defended on Tuesday (23), during a lecture at the Congress of Agribusiness Women, in São Paulo (SP), that Brazilian agriculture begins to charge goodwill for the sustainability of our agricultural production .
“What country in the world preserves 66% of the territory with native forest, being practically a third of that in rural properties,” the executive said, referring to recent Embrapa figures – endorsed by Nasa – about the stage of environmental protection in Brazil.
According to Hermann, the Brazilian rural entrepreneur, who produces soybeans on a farm fully certified from the standpoint of sustainability concepts, has to ask for a price for his product. “Society, the international community increasingly want to know product origination, traceability, wanting sustainable products, but need to pay for it.”
According to the executive, the same reasoning applies, for example, to the “neutral carbon” meat that Embrapa has been developing, characterized by bovine farming developed in excellent pastures, which function as instruments of carbon sequestration. “It’s time to work on brand attributes, sustainability, going beyond the commodity.”
Geopolitics of agriculture
In her presentation, Hermann also stressed that in the case of agricultural geopolitics, Brazil needs to export its production technology to Africa, a region similar to ours, which can become a large food store. “It’s a business opportunity for us.”
According to the executive, Asia, especially China is undoubtedly our main agricultural customer, and that we should increasingly invest in this trade, seeking to incorporate the sale of animal protein [meat], not just commodities.
Hermman also pointed out that, in general, Latin America will enter a new period of growth, because it is a cyclical issue. In addition, the executive stressed that the urban population of developed countries, especially the European, will increasingly challenge the heavy local subsidies for agriculture, “which will be good for us.”
In technical terms, Hermann stressed that agricultural planting is increasingly advancing towards the concept of singularization, with each seed in its exact place, and with shorter planting windows. “This scenario creates a challenge for us manufacturers to create increasingly efficient agricultural machinery.” In this regard, the executive stated that stand-alone tractors will be commercially available for agriculture within three years.
This text was translated by machine from Brazilian Portuguese.