November 19, 2007

 

Brazil soy giant Andre Maggi gets environment certification

 

 

One of Brazil's leading soy export companies, Grupo Andre Maggi, received ISO 14001 certification for environmental quality management, the company said in a press release this week.

 

The certification goes to part of the company's supply chain, starting with its soy farms in Sapezal, Mato Grosso, roughly 250 kilomeres east of the Bolivia border. It's currently the only soy farm in Brazil with such certification, according to the company.

 

The company said it was awarded the certification on Tuesday. The export route leaving Sapezal, including warehouses for soy storage and the company's Hermasa riverport in Rondonia state on the western border, were credited with ISO 14001 compliance.

 

The Hermasa riverport is a small trans-shipment terminal that takes soy to Porto Velho in Rondonia state, where it then leaves by barge through the Amazon river to be exported to Australia, Europe and China. The company exported 2 million  tonnes of soy complex goods in 2006 from the Hermasa terminal, the company said.

 

"We are implementing more and more of our system with (international) environmental quality control standards," said the company's chief executive, Pedro Jacyr Bongiolo.

 

Grupo Andre Maggi is part of the Blairo Maggi family of agribusinesses. Blairo Maggi, considered the "soy king" of Brazil, is governor of Mato Grosso state, Brazil's leading soy producer.

 

In the late 1990s, Maggi's soy investments in Mato Grosso were considered one of the main culprits of Amazon deforestation.

 

This year, Maggi agreed to a "zero deforestation" policy in his state; a policy pushed by environmental groups like Greenpeace Amazon and Friends of the Earth.

 

The move is part of a larger soy industry strategy to showcase itself as good stewards of the environment by agreeing last year to no longer purchase soys from farmers who recently deforested land.

 

Pressure from consumer and environmental groups in Europe led to the newfound environmental focus on Brazilian commercial soy farms.

 

Grupo Andre Maggi has 2007 revenue estimates of around $1 billion, up 15 percent from 2006, according to Sao Paulo business daily Gazeta Mercantil.

 

Brazil is the No. 2 soy exporter following the US