ADM prepares entry into the Brazilian seeds and biological products market

Archer Daniels Midland Company (ADM) announced its plan to enter the seed and biological products markets in Brazil. Executives mention next year as the target date. The company already operates in the pesticide and fertilizer distribution sectors. Their business with rural producers may or may not involve exchange contracts for future merchandise ("barter").

Raphael Costa, director of origination and inputs at ADM in Brazil, informed that there is no precise schedule for operating in the new markets. The companies that supply the products that ADM will sell have not yet been defined.

In terms of seeds, initially the supply will cover soybean cultivation. Secondly, the company will offer corn cultivars.

Traceability and regenerative agriculture

For the 2023/24 harvest, ADM expects to grow 15% in terms of soybean “origination”; and 10% in terms of off-season corn. These numbers arise in a context of importance of the traceability of these products. Consumers in important markets began to give importance to the place of origin of products, the methods of cultivation and the environmental and social relationships related to agricultural activities.

In the video below, Raphael Costa explains this relationship between production and consumers.

Producer Júlio Cezar Pereira, owner of Fazenda Pombo (located in Uberlândia), has adopted practices in recent years to improve his way of farming and relations with the environment. He places the droughts that occurred in the region in 2013 and 2014 as a reference for the search for more sustainable forms of production. There it was possible to see the resilience of sustainable systems in relation to more conventional practices. He is currently part of the first group of rural producers enrolled in the ADM Regeneração program, which began recently. In the video below, Júlio talks broadly about adopting practices and "ESG" at his property.

Specifically regarding the ADM Regeneração program, launched in Brazil in November last year, André Germanos, director of carbon and regenerative agriculture business at ADM in Latin America, points out the goal of reaching 200 thousand hectares in the next five years. Currently, the system covers 20 thousand. The general outline of the program can be seen in the video below.

But what is regenerative agriculture? It is a set of agricultural management practices that allow producing more with less impact on natural resources. It involves, among others, considerations about water, biodiversity, carbon management... Carlos Eduardo Pellegrini Ceri, professor at Esalq, explains the subject in the video below.