Cocamar raises the list of products and industrialization – 07/13/2023 – Vaivém

Cocamar, one of the main cooperatives in the country, is completing 60 years. It began in Maringá, at the height of the country’s coffee crisis, when there was overproduction, falling prices and purchases made by intermediaries, which complicated the economic situation of coffee producers at the time.

The Cocamar of the 60 years is very different from that of its beginning. Coffee ceased to be the main focus, and a range of other products entered its list. A pioneer in the Maringá region, the cooperative seeks to add value to the products received from members.

“In addition to adding value, the cooperative tries to soften market oscillations and make credit risks more pulverized”, says the vice-president of the entity, José Cícero Aderaldo, Zico.

For him, given the conditions of the properties in the region, the agricultural producer would find it very difficult to survive economically without the cooperative. At least 70% of the properties are up to 50 hectares.

The volume produced in a property of this size is unattractive for multinationals, but plausible for a cooperative, which, in general, is formed by the union of small producers.

“The cooperative does not go to a region to extract wealth from the place and take it to another. It acts to leave wealth in the region itself”, says Aderaldo.

Cooperatives have evolved with the increase in production in the regions where they operate, and Cocamar has not been different. In this harvest, it will receive 4 million tons of grains, including soy, corn and wheat.

This advance in agricultural production has also required an evolution of cooperatives, not only in receiving an increasing volume of products but also in industrialization.

Cocamar’s current storage capacity is 2.2 million tons, but the cooperative is already preparing for at least 3 million. “We don’t need to have the 4 million, since they are different harvests, but we need to be prepared for the producer’s decision to sell, which does not always sell at once”, says the vice president.

The cooperative already has 16 industrial plants, ranging from soybean crushing to the production of feed and foliar nutrients. The cooperative’s own incentive for producers to engage in more activities generates new requirements.

This is the case of the ILPF program (Integração Crop-Livestock-Forest), always encouraged by Cocamar. The advancement of the application of the program in the properties of the associates generated the need for the processing and commercialization of early beef, a program that will start soon.

Changes in agribusiness create demands for cooperatives. Aderaldo says that Cocamar has several projects to be implemented. After the implementation of the biodiesel industry, evaluation studies are already being carried out for the production of corn ethanol.

Also on the radar is encouraging fish farming in the region, based on a different technology, says the vice president. The advance of agriculture in the regions where it operates is also forcing Cocamar to duplicate the soybean processing industry.

“We haven’t stopped investing, and we dedicate at least 50% of the cooperative’s result to investments every year”, says Aderaldo. He points out, however, that it is a difficult task with interest rates at current levels.

Some investments, however, are specific and essential, such as expanding storage capacity. In view of the greater volume of grains that the cooperative has received in recent years, it is expanding its capacity by 300 thousand tons. This volume is 15% of current capacity.

“We have to give shelter to the cooperative’s production. This year was desperate. We expected 2.1 million tons and received 2.3 million”, says the vice-president.

“And now the corn harvest arrives and, as marketing is slower, it will be another despair. But it is always a complex decision to be taken, since corn production is more uncertain”, he says

“We can empty the warehouse, removing the soy, and not receive the corn in the amount we expected. It will be with a lot of suffering”, he says.

Aderaldo says that the cooperative has to support all of its members’ needs: from diesel to the harvester. As of 2016, Cocamar became an exclusive John Deere dealer in several of the regions where it operates.

“With each machine we sell, we increase the producer’s capacity to produce. If we don’t increase our structure, the bottleneck becomes here [na cooperativa]”.

The producer’s greater access to machines and the advancement of technology in them allows planting and harvesting to be done more quickly. A harvest, which used to take 30 days, can now be harvested in 15, and the cooperative has to be prepared for this intense pace, says Aderaldo.

Cocamar, which earned BRL 7 billion in 2020, should reach the mark of BRL 15 billion in 2025, according to the cooperative’s strategic planning.

record harvest The Brazilian production of grains this year should surpass in 45 million tons that of 2022, according to Conab (Companhia Nacional de Abastecimento).

record harvest 2 Estimates from this Thursday (13) by the government agency point to a total grain production of 318 million tons, 16.5% more than in the previous harvest.

who pulls The soybean harvest rises to 155 million tons, and that of corn, to 128 million. As for rice, it retreats to 10 million.

who pulls 2 Bean production has potential for 3.1 million tons, up 2.5%, and wheat should remain at 10.5 million, according to Conab estimates.