News

Grobocopatel does not respond to the stereotype of the traditional entrepreneur, with a vision based on the knowledge society, it perceives more and more clearly that the field of the next few years will be very different from the current one as a place of production, due to the convergence of innovation in processes . "There will be more robotization, fields without tractors, machines that will not work by traction, and equipment to inject seeds and inputs into the soil," he described, in addition to the growing emergence of a model that will use biological products to control weeds and insects."

During his participation in the Maizar congress, Grobocopatel participated in a panel where the need to add value in the bioeconomy of corn, one of the largest sources of "issuance of dollars" in Argentina, was discussed; the challenges of food systems; the technological and organizational revolution that the sector will undergo in ten years' time; the perspective of the largest poultry company in the country and one of the largest generators of employment, and even the role of corn in artificial meat, were some of the enormous issues addressed by the panel “Institutions, companies and technologies for the development of the chain ”, moderated by Fernando Vilella, director of the FAUBA Bioeconomy Program. In addition to the president of Los Grobo, Gabriel Delgado, representative of the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA) and Joaquín De Grazia, president of Granja Tres Arroyos, were present.

Gabriel Delgado focused on the role of corn as a source of foreign exchange generation and development. “Since 1970, Argentina is the country with the most periods of recession after the Congo, and among other reasons it is due to the lack of dollars. We don't have many sectors from which to feed us dollars; the way to issue dollars is by exporting. The case of corn is emblematic, due to the effects it could have on the economy,” said the former Secretary of Agriculture of the Nation.

For this, Delgado assured that the previous step is to generate a project that eliminates the current cracks and that allows the value chain to take a greater leap in foreign trade. The absolute value of corn exports must be improved to generate more income and employment, he said, and compared the performance of the Argentine grain with that of its competitors in the world market: "The United States exports only 15 points of what it produces, since that 85% consume it internally; Brazil processes 65% of the corn it produces; Argentina, 35%”, he compared.

One of the chains in which corn could be supported to generate more income and domestic development is that of meat, said Delgado, which would give much greater robustness to the economy and the social fabric. “There is knowledge, professionals and people who know what to do. We still need to agree on basic issues, such as improving corn processing and being able to export more meat, he stressed.

Based on his role at IICA, Delgado indicated that he is working on the collective action of the countries of the region so that they embrace the sustainable food systems agenda. “There are enormous challenges in food systems, but they are not failed systems, as it was intended to be implemented. They are collective actions that go for the environment. Hopefully, the countries of the region take the dimension of what they have in their hands from the generation of proteins and the possibility of offering them to the world in quantity and quality”, he indicated.

A referent and transformer of the productive reality, Gustavo Grobocopatel put innovation as the flag of development. "Innovation breaks the line and generates new floors and scenarios that until then had not been imagined," he said.

The agribusiness entrepreneur assured that he perceives more and more clearly that the field of the next few years will be very different from the current one as a place of production, due to the convergence of innovation in the processes. "There will be more robotization, fields without tractors, machines that will not work by traction, and equipment to inject seeds and inputs into the soil," he described, in addition to the growing emergence of a model that will use biological products to control weeds and insects. For ten years from now, Grobocopatel projects a "more agroecological" agriculture.

This technological convergence is also combined with more efficient logistics, with an "uberization" of transport and the consolidation of fintech companies as providers of financial services for the sector.

"Artificial intelligence is going to change the way of linking in the value chain, with the particularities of each link, helped by digitization," he assured.

Products will also be the focus of innovation, he said. Artificial meat will be one of them, and he predicted that corn will have its place there, too.

In this new scenario, talking about value chains will be insufficient. For Grobocopatel, it will rise to the dimension of ecosystems, with service providers of all kinds.

Beyond his positive view of what is coming for the agricultural sector, the businessman admitted that this technological revolution may not make us happy and may cause pain. "Society is not prepared for this transformation, and less so the State, which is thinking more about politics and elections than about transforming people's lives," he warned.

Along these lines, he called for a greater participation of the private sector and institutions. “Leaving this transformation in the hands of politicians will be difficult; we entrepreneurs are going to have to get involved”, he anticipated. He believed that the organizations of productive chains are going to have to lead this change from the institutional point of view: “Hope is the key that moves us and the role of Maizar is transcendental, not only as a disseminator of technologies, but also from its place in the society to accompany the challenges that are coming”, he exemplified.

For his part, the poultry businessman Joaquín De Gracia highlighted the role that he had, has and will have corn in the generation of animal protein, and soon also artificial. “My dad arrived in 1935 from Italy and started selling chickens with a car with his brother, who was already in Buenos Aires. This is how we started”, described the president of Granja Tres Arroyos, a company that employs 6,500 people (one of the 50 that generates the largest workforce in the country) and slaughters 750,000 chickens per day.

“The generosity of the country and the role that public schools played in my education made it possible for me to become a public accountant and develop the company,” said De Gracia. And he highlighted the multiplier effect that chicken has as a source of development: “A pedigree bird, over three years and three months, produces 11 million kilos of chicken. Chicken offers the opportunity to have results in a short time”, he remarked.

De Gracia highlighted the leading role of corn and soybeans in the scale of the evolution of the poultry chain: “Currently, with 1.6 kilos of food you can make a kilo of chicken, and without corn you cannot do it. In 1981, if we supplied more than 5% soy in the diet, the chicken did not yield, but we could not give it more than 43% corn either, since it was a source of energy, but it lacked fat, ”he explained. Now, technology has made soybeans and corn occupy 94% of the balanced diet in poultry production.

De Gracia recalled that in 1974 Granja Tres Arroyos, together with another group of national companies, began to export, at the same time as Brazil. Since then, the neighboring country has developed a foreign trade that allows it to export 5 million tons of chicken, while Argentina places 250,000 tons abroad.

“We need a lot of capital injection, since there is no financing to grow in technology. We also need animal welfare to be guaranteed, traceability and controlled health with fewer antibiotics, to ensure our presence in the international market”, he listed. Looking to the future, De Gracia announced that they are developing a cultured meat project: "We are with the first cells, with the idea of ​​knowing that, as a company, in the future we will continue to be and be able to generate work," he stressed. → economis.com.ar

Automatic translation from spanish.