The elected board of Aprosoja Brasil takes office on April 23

The elected board of directors of the Brazilian Association of Soy Producers (Aprosoja Brasil) takes office on April 23rd, at 19pm, in Brasília for the 2024-2027 triennium. The command of the institution for the next three years will be with the rural producer Mauricio Buffon (in the photo), current 1st administrative director of Aprosoja Brasil, who will succeed Antonio Galvan, president of the entity since April 2021. The new board was elected unanimously on April 2nd and has representatives from the main grain producing regions in the country .

Son and grandson of small farmers, Maurício Buffon is 47 years old and is from Ronda Alta, in the north of Rio Grande do Sul, a municipality located in a grain producing region and characterized by small properties. In 1985 he moved with his family to Sorriso, in Mato Grosso. And, in 2009, he saw opportunities at Tocantins, where he transferred with his brother.

“What attracted me to the North Region was the climate, the opportunities and the fact that it is an expansion region for grain production. Matopiba (Maranhão, Tocantins, Piauí and Bahia) is currently responsible for around 30% of grain production in Brazil. Tocantins is today a state with great agricultural growth”, he highlights.

Career at Aprosoja

Married and father of two children, Buffon was one of the founding partners, in 2013, of the Association of Soy and Corn Producers of the State of Tocantins (Aprosoja/TO). In October 2017, he became president of the entity, being re-elected in 2019.

As director of Aprosoja Tocantins, Buffon actively promoted the entity's actions against attempts to implement taxes on the sale of soybeans and agricultural inputs at the state level.

“The producer has the right to directly export his production free of charge. We had many clashes against agricultural taxation, which violates the Kandir Law. Aprosoja has always been committed to defending the producer”, he highlighted.

In June 2019, Aprosoja promoted the Responsible Soy seminar in Tocantins, which resulted in the “Carta de Palmas”, a document in which Aprosoja reaffirmed, based on scientific information provided by Embrapa, proven the environmental sustainability of production in the Brazilian cerrado and reinforced the importance of the Forest Code.

“The Letter of Palmas was translated into several languages ​​and spread around the world in reaction to the attempt by trading companies to implement the Soy Moratorium. With this we managed to put the brakes on the zero deforestation agenda and showed that Brazil can serve consumer markets by having one of the most restrictive environmental laws in the world”, he highlighted.

Work at Aprosoja Brasil

Working at Aprosoja Brasil since 2016, Buffon highlights the competence of the management body elected in 2024. According to him, as it is an institution with a political profile, there is a constant need to have good dialogue with various public and private actors to seek solutions to the main challenges that the production sector faces.

“The elected board is very experienced, with leaders prepared and committed to resolving the demands of producers. Aprosoja Brasil will be present at all negotiation tables, always firmly defending farmers with gains for the production sector. The president is a person who takes the entity’s strategy to the states at the same time as he listens to demands”, he pointed out.

About to assume the presidency of the largest soybean producers' entity in Latin America, Maurício Buffon recognizes Antonio Galvan's efforts during his tenure at Aprosoja.

“I’ve known Galvan since my days in Mato Grosso. He is a leader respected by all rural producers. He is a fighter, who has a lot of determination and pays the price for his actions in defense of the institution. I thank Galvan for supporting our name”, he concluded.