Cocamar announces construction of new soybean crusher

Operating with soybean crushing since 1979, when it put into operation the first plant of the Paraná cooperative movement, Cocamar Cooperativa Agroindustrial announces the beginning of construction in the first months of next year of a new industrial structure in Maringá (PR), with processing capacity for 5 thousand tons of grains/day, a volume that in the future could be increased to 7,5 thousand tons.

Scheduled to be completed in 2027, it will be one of the largest and most innovative crushing plants in the country, increasing its current processing capacity by 70%.

The construction of this new industry is part of a broad resizing of the cooperative's industrial park, which began in recent years and included expanding the reception of harvests and the static grain storage capacity to the current 2,8 million tons, among several other improvements.

This industry will also allow Cocamar to increase the neutralization of the oil refinery from the current 200 tons/year to 350 and, in the future, the capacity of its biodiesel industry. The new structure will also require the construction of a new road-rail terminal to handle the quantity of bran and oil to be produced, as well as expanding the bran storage capacity and the sorting yard to accommodate the expansion of the flow of trucks.

The set of achievements considers an investment of over R$ 1,5 billion, part of which has already been spent on expanding storage capacity, now using, as one of the sources of resources, a financing line obtained from Finep - Financiadora de Estudos e Projetos, a public institution linked to the Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation. 

Modernization and expansion

“It is the biggest project in the entire history of Cocamar”, highlights executive president Divanir Higino, highlighting the modernization of structures and the expansion of industrialization.

Higino explains that increasing crushing means adding more income to the production of almost 20 thousand cooperative producers, 70% of which are small-scale, served by a network of 115 operational units distributed throughout the states of Paraná, São Paulo, Mato Grosso do Sul, Mato Grosso and Goiás. And, with a larger and more efficient industry, Cocamar plans to increase its revenue and results.

Another important social aspect of the project is that during its execution, which will last approximately two years, more than 1,5 workers and hundreds of service providers will be hired, most of them from the region itself.

More competitiveness

“Our goal is to make the cooperative more competitive within the soybean chain,” adds Higino, emphasizing that the organization has a tradition of vertical integration and that the new plant will enable it to absorb practically all the soybeans deposited by its members in the state of Paraná. In the 2024/25 harvest, which is currently underway, Cocamar expects to receive 2,75 million tons of the product and more than 3 million tons in 2027, when it will be able to process at least 50% of this volume.

Another detail is that due to its size, the industry will help at the beginning of the year to free up space in grain warehouses and, in this way, accelerate the collection of harvests from cooperative members.

New parameters

With the innovations foreseen in the project, Cocamar's industry should help establish new parameters for the soybean crushing sector at a national level, which also creates references to improve the country's competitiveness.

In environmental terms, the plant will consume less water, steam, solvents and biomass, and will not generate effluents. Compared to a hypothetical conventional structure with the same production capacity, the estimate is to reduce the amount of water/year by 230 million liters and steam by 125 thousand tons/year, solvent consumption (derived from petroleum) by 700 thousand liters/year and biomass consumption by 10,4 thousand tons/year. In other words, among several other benefits, there will be less energy consumption per ton of soybeans processed.

Innovation

This is an industry 4.0, fully automated, easily operated by computer, and entirely customized. If Cocamar currently produces soybean meal with 46% protein content, with the new structure it will be possible to offer the market new products, including hipro meal, with 48% protein.

The new plant represents a leap forward in technical design and innovation. Using cutting-edge technology, the plant will be equipped with advanced automation systems, real-time digital control and processes optimized for energy efficiency. The implementation of technologies such as warm peeling and extraction maximizes product yield and quality. 

Furthermore, the plant will be sustainable, with solvent recovery systems and steam generation from wastewater, aligning with best environmental practices and significantly reducing the consumption of natural resources, such as the use of effluents.