Agribusiness Communication Lab discusses sustainability as a competitive advantage

By Aurora Ayres

“Sustainability as a competitive differential in Brazilian agribusiness” was the theme of the Communication Lab for Agribusiness, held by Aberje and sponsored by Amaggi. With more than 60% of its territory covered by native vegetation, Brazil is a fundamental regulator of the global climate – but it needs to create value to keep its forests alive, the panelists concluded.

“Owing to rich biodiversity, Brazil must take the lead in a new global agenda,” said Nicholas Vital, the mediator of the meeting and curator of the Agribusiness Lab.

The meeting also gathered André Guimarães, director of the Instituto de Pesquisa Ambiental da Amazônia (IPAM); Bruna Lima, Corporate Communication coordinator at Votorantim Cimentos; Caio Penido, communicator and rural producer; and Juliana de Lavor Lopes, director of Sustainability, Communication, and Compliance at Amaggi.

According to Caio Penido, the Brazilian people have no perception that Brazil is the most significant environmental power in the world. “Our biodiversity is providing environmental services for free to the world. And there is a cost to conserve this biodiversity, both for the government and producers on the farms. The world needs to invest and dedicate itself to creating markets that value environmental assets,” he said.

André Guimarães, from IPAM, stressed that it is possible to reconcile the conservation and production agenda. “This financial equation needs to be redesigned or even created. To do so, Brazil needs to return to lead this global plan through a new narrative and communication,” he said.

Juliana Lopes, from Amaggi, mentioned the challenge of making the global market understand our qualities and stop questioning some points. “We are champions in direct planting, packaging recycling, and preservation of permanent areas,” she said. As for the communication exercise, Lopes says that Agro needs to work better on its communication with the people who are in the farms.

Bruna Lima, of Votorantim Cimentos, said that the company has been increasingly betting on business diversification to serve the rural producer. “Through research, we concluded that the constant renewal of the soil is important to the farmer, and we created Viter, the new brand for the agricultural inputs business unit.”