Minister defends drop in freight rate

The Minister of Agriculture, Livestock and Supply, Tereza Cristina, said this Monday (08), that the freight rate, which she classified as “perverse”, is already harming both truck drivers and the productive sectors. She added that at the end of May the University of São Paulo (USP) will publish a study with a table proposal. “But ideally, the table would fall because, after all, we live in an open economy”, she defended. “We need to sit down and talk, to reach an understanding between the parties and not create laws and regulations”, she added.

The minister added that she has talked a lot about the problem with the Minister of Infrastructure, Tarcísio Gomes de Freitas, responsible for handling the matter within the government and with the Federal Supreme Court (STF). Tereza Cristina made these statements at a press conference, during the 18th Tecnoshow Comigo, in Rio Verde (GO). Participating in the opening of the event, alongside the minister, were the governor of Goiás, Ronaldo Caiado, the mayor of Rio Verde, Paulo Faria do Vale, as well as federal and state authorities.

The minister highlighted the cooperative system that is the basis of Tecnoshow Comigo's operation. “I had been talking to the president of the Organization of Brazilian Cooperatives (OCB), Márcio Freitas, who explained to me that everything Comigo receives from soybeans adds value, not a grain leaves here without adding value. This can only be done with cooperativism. I think this system is an example for the whole of Brazil. I have traveled a lot around the country during these three months of government and I have preached cooperativism as a way to develop Brazil”, she highlighted.

According to her, Tecnoshow comes from the rural producer himself who saw the need to organize himself and, then, the cooperatives and class associations saw that this is a model that works. “What the ministry can do is support in every way possible,” she added. “We know that agribusiness is this success, this strength that has taken off. It is ahead of public authorities,” she said. “We in the government are rushing to regain our leading role. We are going to do this by helping, simplifying, reducing bureaucracy in the actions that the producer needs, without losing quality”, she stated. “This is what the ministry has been dealing with in these 90 days: putting together a public policy that makes life easier for those who produce in our country and not that gets in the way, because we (the government) have already gotten in the way a lot.”

The minister recalled that the ministry's role is to show the world that the certification of Brazilian products is serious, and that everyone can believe in what the country produces for more than 160 markets around the world.