Brazilneedstoimplementavalue-addingpolicywithregardsto
ourexportsand,at thesametime,encouragethe industrialization
of theproducts intheCountrytoincreasethesector’s income
And the future?
Abiove officials expect that the higher percentage in themixture of biofuels will demand
more soybean oil over the next years and project that in 2020, with the B10, the processing
volume should amount to 7 billion liters, up nearly 80% from the present reality. “The de-
mand for soybean oil for biodiesel should reach 5 million tons. With the possible arrival of
the B15, it will go beyond two digits”, explains economist Daniel Furlan Amaral. “Therefore,
we can consider the biodiesel as a growth vector for processed soybean”.
Accordingtohim,therearerelevantadvantageswithprocessinganddomesticconsump-
tion of the oilseed. One of them is the fact that the generation of jobs increases fourfold. At
present,itisestimatedthatthesoybeancomplexgenerates900thousanddirectandindirect
jobs, of which 419 thousand at field level and 481 thousand at industrial processing.
If the meat complex is included (poultry, pigs and cattle), another 3.5 million job posi-
tions are created, either direct or indirect. “For the Center-West, biodiesel is even more im-
portant, for the presence of surpluses, that could be sent to other regions, and the potential
for more intensive local use, capable of generating savings due to the use of biodiesel in-
stead ofmineral diesel”, he explains.
Among the strongpoints of the sector, theeconomist highlights themodernprocessing in-
dustry,ofinternationalstandards,withprofessionalizedmanagement,ongoodtermswiththe
farmers and capable of adding financial, technical and logistic services. “However, there are
obstacles to be conquered, like the lack of tax isonomy at exports (industry bears the burden)
and theneed toopen the internationalmarket, througha reduction in the taxpolicy in the im-
portingmarkets andagreements for bigger soybeanmeal, oil andbiodiesel sales”, he insists.
Advanceswithinthiscontext,gomandatorilythrougharevisionofthetaxesleviedonthesup-
plychainandthroughthegradualconsolidationofBrazilasasupplierofprocessedsoybean.
What is
missing
The soybean complex represented US$
27.9 billion in revenue, or 14.6% of all Bra-
zilian exports in 2015. Although these num-
bers deserve to be celebrated, there is an
important question: adding value to this
supply chain is a big challenge for the sec-
tor. Statistical numbers presented by Dan-
iel Furlan Amaral, manager of the Econom-
icsDepartmentattheBrazilianVegetableOil
Industries Association (Abiove), in Septem-
ber 2016, at a bioenergy event inMatoGros-
so, demonstrates that over the past 35 years
Brazil has been losing representativeness in
the exports of products of this complex, due
to the lack of value-adding policies.
In 1981, exports of soybean kernels rep-
resented 13%and 87%of the foreign sales of
soybeanmeal and oil. In physical volume, the
values went up in gigantic proportions, but
proportionally there was a tremendous in-
version: 75%of all soybean cargoes that leave
Brazil,mostly for China, is rawmaterial, that is
to say, soybeankernels. The remaining25% is
meal and oil. “Nowadays, Brazil industrializes
only 42%of its soybean crop. Therefore, there
isavastpotentialforanincreaseintheproduc-
tionofmealandoil”,explainsAmaral.
In the 2015/16 growing season, for exam-
ple, Abiove sources indicate, with numbers
updatedinSeptember,theproductionof 96.6
million tons, of which, 53 million tons are ex-
ported and 40.7 million tons are destined for
the local industry. Of the industrialized prod-
uct,30.9milliontonsareforsoybeanmealand
8.05million tons for rawoil. Soybeanmeal ex-
ports reach 15.2 million tons but the biggest
volume, 15.7million tons, is for domestic con-
sumption. Of these, 6.5 million tons are con-
sumed in the localmarket –2.5million tonsof
biodieseland1.5milliontonsinexports.
Amaralhasitthatbiodieselisanimportant
tool for stimulating soybean industrialization.
He illustrates, for example, that, before the ar-
rival of the B5 (mandatory mixture of 5%bio-
dieselwith fossil diesel), Brazil used toprocess
30.3 million tons a year and jumped to 36.7
million tons a year. In 2015, soybean process-
ing amounted to 40.5million tons for the pro-
duction of 8 million tons of oil. In 2016, con-
sumption of this raw material increased by
700 tons, up 50 thousand tons fromthe previ-
ous year.Nowadays, 76%of thebiodiesel pro-
ducedinBrazilcomesfromsoybean.
Revision of the taxation
systemand a new international
concept are challenges
Inor Ag. Assmann
58
