Grão Direto and Bayer come together to expand the reach of sustainable practices in the commercialization of grains

Grão Direto, a digital platform for trading grains in Latin America, announces the introduction, in collaboration with Bayer, of the “Seal of More Sustainable Practices" in its digital marketplace. The presence of the seal will indicate which farmers on the platform are using agronomic practices more beneficial to the environment. The initiative allows the startup, which has several other actions that seek to encourage the adoption of more sustainable practices, to provide even greater security, traceability and efficiency for digital grain transactions in the physical market.

Developed in collaboration with Bayer's global sustainability team, the seal is awarded to farmers based on the results of a questionnaire on sustainable agricultural practices. The methodology assigns a score to specific aspects such as direct planting, nitrogen use, soil management, types of rotation crops, among others. Furthermore, those farmers with lower scores are encouraged to learn more and adopt practices that are more beneficial to the environment. After a pilot with more than 200 participating Brazilian farmers, the initiative will now be extended to tens of thousands of users of the Grão Direto platform. In addition to the seal, other ESG-related data, organized from different sources — such as government agencies and monitoring and compliance companies — are used to verify, for example, entries on a slave labor list or with IBAMA.

Bayer's support was essential for the creation of the sustainable practices seal. Grão Direto's product and technology teams were supported by global experts from the multinational, who served as consultants on relevant pilot project topics, including the best way to approach farmers, score composition, methodology and results. Leaps by Bayer, Bayer's impact investment arm, also participated in Grão Direto investment rounds in 2018 and 2021.

“It was an incredible collaborative work”, says Frederico Marques, Head of Product, CTO of Grão Direto and leader of the initiative. "Our team put a lot of effort into this project: we were in contact with leading ESG experts, we researched references from other markets, we validated the customer experience and user acceptability and, of course, we defined which agronomic practices — and at what level — are differentiators for better environmental care". For Marques, Bayer's support was exceptional: “It is gratifying to be part of a working group with some of the biggest names in the world in sustainability, solutions for reducing carbon emissions and digital products for agribusiness. The availability, kindness and involvement of these professionals gives us even more confidence that we are on the right path to being the digital grain marketing platform that most encourages sustainability in the world", emphasized Marques.

"As a global leader in agriculture with significant scale and scope, we have a great responsibility to address the challenges posed to our food system and the impact of agriculture on the environment. To achieve this, we believe and trust in solid partnerships", says Matthias Berninger, Head of Public Affairs, Science & Sustainability at Bayer. "This is exactly why we worked with Grão Direto to create the 'More Sustainable Practices Seal'. This is a great example of how we encourage farmers to implement solutions to obtain better harvests using less water, land and energy."

Democratization of information and market demand

The availability of information about sustainability on the Grão Direto platform will also allow better control for grain buyers, of different profiles and sizes, who do not yet have highly developed environmental compliance processes. In this way, the adoption of sustainability standards in the commercialization of grains could go beyond large companies, which already have their own specific ESG sectors.

With this, Grão Direto supports and encourages its users to meet the growing demands for sustainability in business with agricultural commodities, increasing the quality of standards and processes throughout the entire grain origination chain. Furthermore, through technology it will be possible to offer a higher level of knowledge and education in cases where the system identifies opportunities to improve users' agricultural practices, thus increasing the general level of sustainability throughout the chain. This large-scale increase in sustainability awareness could benefit a variety of important biomes, such as the Amazon and the Cerrado.

Positioned as a marketplace, Grão Direto's strategy is to gather, process and make available — in an integrated way with grain commercial journeys — ESG data from different sources that actively produce this type of information. The startup acts as a client of monitoring and compliance companies, helping to distribute their products and services, facilitating their connection with new customers and partners, in addition to contributing to their models based on data generated by the Grão Direto platform. The idea is to provide the market, at the right time and in an integrated and accessible way, with the necessary information so that grain transactions can be completed quickly, safely and with the most modern environmental and social compliance.

“Brazilian farmers are not afraid of sustainability, as the vast majority are engaged and have excellent practices that protect the environment”, says Frederico Marques. “What they are looking for is a simple, integrated and effective way to demonstrate their suitability.” Grão Direto’s objective is to contribute to Brazil’s leadership on this issue. "Our vision for the future is to ensure that all grains traded digitally through the platform have passed well-defined market criteria in relation to sustainability, in addition to promoting best practices and processes for all grain producers and buyers. The ESG theme will open even more doors for Brazilian farmers and we want to boost this movement by supporting efficient, safe and sustainable agribusiness. This current initiative is just the first step!”, highlights Marques.