Diversification comes out to practice with Canola

The mantra of diversification has been sung by several agents of the biodiesel sector. Diversifying raw material of plants is the path to reduce the dependence on soybean in the production of biodiesel, but speech has been much easier than practice so far.

Now, a company decided not to speak only, but act together with initiatives to increase the offer of canola.

The plant is the attempt of BSBIOS, which is a company that produces biodiesel and it is headquartered in Rio Grande do Sul. Only last week, the plant made three agreements in order to encourage the alternative crop, two of them were to renovate partnerships already existent.

Among the initiatives to make the project boom, it is the foundation of the Associação Brasileira dos Produtores de Canola (Abrascanola), in December las year. The entity stands for all productive chain of the plant - farmers, industry, entities, logistics, research and development.

Headquartered in Passo Fundo, the association is resulting from a center of entities of class, producers and industry that has begun a work for four years to encourage the development of the plant in the country. "BSBIOS commenced this work, led it and soon after that this leadership was shared with Banco do Brasil, with which we began the group of work DRS Biofuels", asserts the Chief Executive Officer of the plant and chairman of the association, Erasmo Carlos Battistella. This group acts in the sustainable regional development which focuses on producing raw materials for diversification in the production of biodiesel. "This group of work and its actions became increasingly more effective form where the association was created."

According to the director, Abrascanola is already achieving its bureaucratic issues and sending invitations so that more companies, farmers and entities join. He explains that the objective of the association is to broadcast and develop canola in the regions where it can be grown - currently, the three states of the South, plus São Paulo and Mato Grosso do Sul.

Abrascanola claims the federal government the formulation of a structuring politics for the development of the canola growth, the same that it was achieved with palma. "We need to change canola into a great vegetable oil crop produced in Brazil, since it is the third vegetable oil produced worldwide, being less produced than soybean and palma only", states Battistella.

Brazil is one of the few countries that join weather conditions and available areas to be one of the worldwide leaders with canola and palma, taking as an example its notable position with soybean. "We wish that this crop is developed, increase the participation of area planted and provide profitability to producer, regardless of biodiesel, human food or whatever it is".

The chairman of Abrascanola recognizes that the high cost might be a barrier to the use of canola oil in the production of biodiesel. "Biodiesel will always try to use raw material which has the lowest cost, unlike human food that you choose between the product which has the lowest cost and quality or the one which has the greatest cost and quality", he compares.

According to Battistella, it is not possible to demand that canola and soybean have the same cost. "For instance, Rio Grande do Sul plants 30 thousand hectares of canola and 5 million hectares of soybean", he emphasizes. "It is David against Goliath, then, there is no way of obtaining the same competitiveness of cost yet. If we have structuring politics, we begin to have greater profitability, gain of scale, better logistics; we will certainly have reduction on the cost of canola."

 

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Source: Ari Silveira - BiodieselBR.com

Biodiesel produced from oil of canola meets 100% the European Union specifications. "That would make exportation easier if we have a competitive price", asserts the Chief Executive Officer of BSBIOS.

Erasmo Battistella still stresses the benefits of canola for family agriculture, which number of producers have increased. "This year we will have an exponential growth and the family farmers are also represented in Abrascanola", he guarantees. On Monday (14), first day of Expodireto 2011, in Não-Me-Toque (RS), BSBIOS announced an increase of 15% in the worth of the product commercialization, at R$ 46 per sack, with a bonus of R$ 1,00 for family farmers.

Yet, in the first day at the exhibition, which is considered as the one of the largest in the country, BSBIOS signed a term of cooperation with Emater-RS in order to make the improvement of canola feasible, mainly for family agriculture. On Wednesday, the plant renovated a partnership with the cooperative credit Sicredi to encourage the production of canola directed to biodiesel. The next day, it was renovated another agreement, this time, with Banco do Brasil and Cotrijal, in order to make financing for the production of canola feasible.

Battistella defines canola as the "winter soybean", that is, an alternative of growth for the period in which the areas of planting of soybean are idle. According to Emater-RS monoculture is not a good alternative for family farmers. Farmers who practice the rotation of the crop observe an increase of soybean profitability in the summer, with up to three sacks more per hectare in the areas where canola is planted in the winter.