Renasem regularity is one of the warning points for 2023

According to the Brazilian Confederation of Agriculture and Livestock (CNA), the largest entity representing the country's agricultural sector, the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of agriculture ended the year 2022 with a drop of 4,1% compared to the previous year. , resulting from the failure of the soybean harvest and the increase in the prices of agricultural pesticides and fertilizers caused, mainly, by the war between Russia and Ukraine.

However, new projections from the CNA indicate that Brazilian agribusiness, which is the engine of the economy in the external sector, should grow again in 2023. The CNA indicated that agribusiness GDP should end 2023 with a growth of 2,5 .2022% compared to 8. The estimate from the Brazilian Institute of Economics of Fundação Getulio Vargas (Ibre-FGV) is even higher, with growth of XNUMX% in the same period.

Such projections translate into the expectation of the Brazilian harvest of cereals, legumes and oilseeds, since, according to the Systematic Survey of Agricultural Production (LSPA), from the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE), this harvest should reach 296,2 million tons – which will correspond to an increase of 12,6% compared to the 2022 result or 33,1 million tons of grains.

The new federal government had already indicated at the beginning of the year that it would promote efforts to strengthen agricultural production, especially on the fronts of family farming, traditional agriculture and sustainable agribusiness.

In this context, agents involved in agribusiness (producers, processors, packers, importers, exporters and traders) must remain aware of the changes that occurred at the end of last year and are yet to come, in order to remain compliant with legislation. environment and thus seek sustainable growth in the sector.

This is because, according to measures that have already been taken since the beginning of the year, the expectation is that the new government will reinforce environmental preservation and inspection bodies and the fight against illegal extractive practices.

It is therefore essential that agribusiness agents keep their records and information updated with supervisory bodies, including environmental ones, in order to avoid the imposition of fines and/or other penalties, such as, for example, warning, seizure and condemnation of seeds, seedlings or propagation material, even embargo of areas, and suspension or revocation of registration in the National Register of Seeds and Seedlings (Renasem).

On the subject, at the end of 2022, Ordinance No. 501/2022 was published by the Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Supply (Mapa), aiming to regulate issues related to Renasem and thus complementing Law No. 10.711/2003, the Normative Instruction MAPA nº 17/2017 and Decree nº 10.586/2020, which aim to “guarantee the identity and quality of plant multiplication and reproduction material produced, sold and used throughout the national territory”.

Renasem is a mandatory, unique registration, valid throughout the national territory and linked to a CPF or CNPJ that aims to qualify individuals or legal entities that carry out production, processing, packaging, storage, analysis activities before Mapa. , trade, import and export of seeds and/or seedlings and activities of technical responsibility, certification, sampling, collection or analysis of seeds or seedlings.

The procedures for registration by those who carry out the above activities and the accreditation of the technical responsible are established in Ordinance No. 501/2022, and have a validity period of five years, and can be renewed for equal periods as long as requested and the requirements are met. provided for in Decree No. 10.586/2020 and in the new ordinance. These standards also establish that the granting of registration or accreditation may, at the discretion of the supervisory body, be conditioned to prior technical evaluation or the presentation of complementary electronic documents, and such prior evaluation must be carried out within a maximum period of 30 days after compliance with documentary requirements.

Once registered with Renasem, producers, processors, packers, storers, traders, importers and exporters of seeds and/or seedlings must observe the requirements and obligations imposed for their category, such as, for example, declaring production and carrying out the correct identification of seedlings and seeds.

Compliance with these standards is important both for producers, processors, packers, storers, traders, importers and exporters of seeds and/or seedlings, and for the sector as a whole. This is because Renasem aims to guarantee the quality and origin of seeds and seedlings, and consequently, provides greater security to farmers regarding the quantity and quality of their production, boosting the sector. In fact, many notices for the production and commercialization of specific seeds produced by Embrapa require regularity before Renasem as a prerequisite.

Thus, with specific rules regarding the registration of seeds and seedlings already in force and considering the forecasts of the CNA and Ibre-FGV, there is a more optimistic scenario for the agribusiness sector compared to what was the year 2022, with the possibility of consequently causing a positive domino effect on all other sectors linked to it.

In this sense, sector agents must remain aware of the measures that will be taken by the new government, especially considering that agribusiness is one of the main sources of the Brazilian economy and that investors are – in a context marked by ESG policies – increasingly concerned about reallocating their investments and resources in companies that opt ​​for sustainable practices.

By Isabela Bueno Ojima, Carolina Teixeira Piñeira e Mauricio Pellegrino, Cescon Barrieu Advogados