RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – Economy Minister Paulo Guedes on Thursday, June 17, mentioned traceability, sanitation and fighting waste as the main challenges Brazil will have to address to become the “breadbasket of the world” in the production and export of food products.
“The world’s granary cannot be the country where there is hunger. Here, we must implement social policies that allow the most fragile and vulnerable to be incorporated in the production chain or socially assisted, but in any event we notice waste in Brazil not only from production, but until it reaches our supermarket and even our tables.”
Taking part in the Supply Chain Forum of the Brazilian Supermarket Association (ABRAS), Guedes also pointed out that the country has the “world’s cleanest energy matrix” but, to maintain it, traceability is required, thereby ensuring the checking of sanitation and the preservation of what he classified as a “green universe” under the production aspect.
The Minister also pointed out that, amidst the Covid-19 pandemic, agriculture “preserved the vital signs” of domestic economy, highlighting exports to Asian countries, with a 40% growth, particularly to China.
“We really need this infrastructure and all this logistical capacity to get our production to reach the rest of the world. We suffered a relatively small impact from this break in global production chains during the pandemic because our comparative advantage was in agriculture,” he said, highlighting that the country had little industrial integration.