Bayer CropScience turns its attention to coffee cultivation in Brazil

Bayer found a new way of seeing agriculture and adding value to field products to ensure the competitiveness of Brazilian producers within a demanding global market for quality and concerned about sustainability issues in the production chain.

The “Valore” Program, from Bayer CropScience, is already recognized at grape, sugarcane and soybeans crops, through partnerships with large companies and mills, and it starts now a new cycle, focused on coffee crops. The pilot project, in partnership with COPAMA cooperative, has started its activities in Axearea (Minas Gerais state), which according to the National Food Supply Company is responsible for 25% of the coffee produced in Brazil.

The main goal of the program is to add value to the supply chain and ensure the competitiveness of Brazilian producers through rigorous monitoring of the agricultural production process. The first step is farmers’ registration,who work with Bayer products in the area, through distributor or cooperative. Next, the property goes through a diagnosis made by a consultant hired by the company, which draws a plan to adapt the field that will result in the technical assistance by Bayer professionals during the production.

According to the Sustainable Development and Stewardship manager from Bayer CropScience, Adriana Ricci, it is expected to certify 80% of COPAMA cooperative within one year. "The great challenge of Brazilian coffee grower is its place on the market, especially international. Often many farmers lose business by not having the necessary certification," she says.

Divided into three levels - bronze, silver and gold - the Valore Program comprehends several fronts up to gold. Besides the concern about the sustainability of the culture and the environment, Adriana points out that the project offers benefits to farmers and business sustainability in the long term; product differentiation, technical assistance and Bayer CropScience professional expertise, good agricultural practices with rational use of products and natural resources, professional skills , better business management such as allocation/use of resources more efficiently; in addition to the reduction of production costs, and increased productivity.

Valore Program

The Valore program was created in 2009 aims, among other objectives, to ensure the competitiveness of the Brazilian producer and to open the doors of the most demanding international markets. It began with a pilot project with a small group of grape growers in Rio Grande do Sul, which quickly gained prominence, being the first Brazilian to receive the traditional winemaker international certification from Fair Trade. Outside the grape culture, the Bayer CropSciense program has certified more than 60 thousand hectares of sugarcane and 35 hectares of soybeans.