Representing ten different countries, a delegation of diplomats landed in Mato Grosso do Sul, in the Pantanal region, for a Brazilian Farmer experience. The initiative is part of the AgroBrazil Exchange Program, which was held on the week of September 18th. The mission was organized by CNA, in partnership with ApexBrasil.
Diplomats from Germany, Australia, Canada, Korea, the United Arab Emirates, Spain, Indonesia, the United Kingdom, Thailand, and Turkey visited various farms and institutions linked to the state’s main productions. This includes crops such as grain production, cassava starch, and cotton yarn, cattle breeding with a focus on organic meat, beef cattle in feedlots, as well as a visit to a refinery that produces corn ethanol.
For CNA’s Vice President for International Relations, Gedeão Pereira, Brazil has sought to produce food with sustainability and reduce carbon emissions through research and technology. “Today, Brazil is the solution for the world in terms of agricultural, environmental, and electric power. Our mission is to bring diplomatic delegations to see how we produce with sustainability.”
“Brazil is currently consolidating its position as a world power in food production and exports. It is very important that these representatives learn about our reality in loco,” says Antonio Pereira Rosa, head of EMBRAPA Gado de Corte. The entity works on pasture research, applied animal genetics, production systems incorporating nutrition, health, handling, reproduction and management technologies, and low-carbon production systems.
The diplomats’ mission also showed that Brazilian agribusiness can be associated with a clean energy mix. The group visited a local industry producing renewable corn-based fuel. “Our goal is to show Brazil has many opportunities, such as negotiating our corn as an almost carbon-neutral fuel,” said Elena Castellani, CNA’s International Relations advisor.
Raiza Martinelli, Senior Economic Policy Officer at the Canadian Embassy, was very impressed with the whole structure. “It’s great to know that there’s a company like this in Brazil which practices sustainability in such an interesting way. It was very positive.”
The program
The AgroBrazil Exchange Program was launched by CNA in April 2017 in order to bring Brazilian rural producers closer to foreign diplomats living in Brazil. It aims to promote direct contact with agricultural production and strengthen the national agribusiness image to representatives of strategic countries. Previous editions of the program have taken more than 25 diplomatic delegations to visit the states of Bahia, Pernambuco, Mato Grosso do Sul, Minas Gerais, Pará, and Rio Grande do Sul.