Bayer bets on barter to retain Brazilian customers

The national manager of barter operations in Bayer Brazil, Paulo Soares, affirms that the company considers this type of financing extremely important. The input supplier understands that this is a way to build customer royalty, adding “sustainability to the farmer business, taking him not to worry about cash, but what he really needs to produce”.

"Our idea is that the farmer needs to dedicate to what he does best. We have invested a lot in this sort of business and have obtained a growth that has quadrupled between 2014/15 season and 2015/16 season. For the next crop (2016/17), the perspective is there will be an increase of two to three times,” said the executive.

Soares reminds that in the last two years the operations increased a lot due to the difficulties to access credit. Even with incentives, such as the Crop Plan, the financial institutions are a lot more cautious to release money. “If our farmer does not have credit, he comes to us to ask to extend the payment deadline,” he explains.

What makes Brazil a different place for the growth of barter is the legal strength of the Rural Product Certificate. Brazil is the only country in the world with an instrument like this, which has a specific law to support the juridical guarantee in this type of operation.

In the manager’s vision, three factors push the barter growth: the commodity prices range, the currency volatility and unavailability of credit. “Opting for barter, the producer has security and can plan its costs, even in a time of such instability,” he concludes.