10/29/2008 14h15
Syngenta will produce sugar cane seedlings in the country
Valor Econômico - 10/29/2008
Anglo-Swiss Syngenta, one of the biggest agrochemical and seeds companies of the world, is starting to produce sugarcane seedlings in Brazil. In the country, where the company invoiced US$ 1.1 billion in 2007, the segment will correspond to an annual income around US$ 300 million in 2015. The project, started two years ago, will consume an investment of US$ 100 million until 2010. The value comprises one unit of seedlings production in the interior of São Paulo, in a place yet to be defined. Three other units are included in the investments program. At least one of them will be built in the Mid-West. It will not produce the traditional seedlings, up to one meter tall, but small 3-centimeter tall seedlings called
Plene. They will be presented to a group of sugar and alcohol plants today - in total, until 2009, the 50 biggest groups of the sugar and alcohol sector should "test" the technology. In this stage, the disbursement will be Syngenta's, since the commercialization will start in 2010. The planting will be made in an estimated area estimated at 3 thousand hectares in total. The idea is that these areas are areas that belong to the plants themselves, so they can follow the development of the plants in their own sugarcane crops. But the whole development process will be Sygenta's responsibility. The investment has already been approved by the headquarter of the Anglo-Swiss company and it will be done with its own funds, according to Antonio Carlos Motta Guimarães, Sygenta's president for Latin America. This helps prevent the current situation of credit tightening to make the project unfeasible. Syngenta's preliminary studies indicated a productivity increase between 5% and 15% per hectare with the use of the "mini-seedling". The productions costs, according to the company, are 15% smaller. In the manual planting, the cost is US$ 2,250 per hectare and, in the mechanized one, it is US$ 2,100 per hectare. One characteristic of the sugarcane crops is the need of renewal. Every four or five consecutive cuts, the renewal rate is between 15 to 20% of the total cultivated area, and this requires a great production of new seedlings. The area for this purpose normally covers 5% of the properties. These areas reserved to seedlings can be converted into commercial production areas, affirms the executive.
