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Gustavo Grobocopatel is the president of Los Grobo Agropecuaria, a conglomerate that bills 800 million euros (approximately 895 million dollars). He produces such a quantity of grain that he has been baptized as "the king of soy". And it could be. A redhead with more than one meter ninety of height fits the definition of any sovereign. He, however, repudiates the nickname. He does not like being a king and says he does not live as such. However, being an austere man does not mean that he renounces all the comforts of status: he travels in first class and lives in Puerto Madero, a sophisticated neighborhood of Buenos Aires that approaches Dubai by the erect towers and the artificial island Demarchi. Although to add flavor to the stew, the house is not yours, but his father, who may lend it as a favor, given that Gustavo was born Los Grobo.
He grew up in Carlos Casares, a Jewish and agricultural colony where the Grobocopatel fell silent. The first to set foot in the Americas was his great-grandfather Abraham with his son Bernardo. They succeeded through the Jewish Coloniation Association, a body that helped Jews without resources in Eastern Europe to forge a future in the fields of Argentina. In Bessarabia, a region located between Ukraine and Moldova, they lived under the rule of the Russian Empire. There, the family did not see a clear future and resorted to the association. In Carlos Casares they took some land that allowed them to earn their wages and move forward. Years later, Bernardo had two children: Jorge and Adolfo. The latter, father of Gustavo.
The business is divided</p>
Gustavo was the first university student of the Grobocopatel. In 1983 he graduated in Agronomy (agricultural engineer) from the University of Buenos Aires. After returning from the capital, he proposed to his father and uncle to incorporate soya into the crops, modernize the machinery and found a company.
Jorge and Adolfo had always worked together. Both managed to transform the 300 hectares of his father's crop to 3,000. However, Gustavo's uncle was not amused by the new directions of the business and decided to continue with the company Grobocopatel Hermanos on their own. Both were 25 years without speaking. His uncle did not do badly: he managed the largest silo plantation in all of Latin America. But to Gustavo and his father, fate smiled even more.
Build soy houses
Grobocopatel Agropecuaria is the emblem of the Green Revolution. In the last 25 years they have turned Latin America into a fertile field of cultivation: literal and figurative. Gustavo's motto is "to turn Argentina into 18th century England". As president of the conglomerate, he preaches the need to start a new rebellion. Hence the parallelism with the British. If they implemented the industrial model based on machinery, Los Grobo and company advocate a pattern driven by plants.
The philosophy of the third industrial revolution, baptized as the Green Revolution, was presented at a talk organized by TED (Technology, Education and Design) for the Technological Institute of Buenos Aires, in 2015. "See soy, from there they are not only removed foods. Soybeans are born chairs, tables and even houses. Armed with a good dose of rhetoric, Gustavo told how a plant, besides grain, provides fuels, plastics and molecules. Plants that can also function as factories. These, instead of spitting smoke, absorb carbon dioxide and fight against pollution.
The dialectical triumph that Grobocopatel seeks is necessary for the success of his company. The family genetically manipulates the products they grow. Transgenics is the pillar of the entire empire. When in 1989 he began with his father to introduce this type of techniques, the production did not stop growing. In the year 2000, it doubled until reaching 60 tons of grain. Currently, in addition to Argentina, they are based in Uruguay, Brazil and Paraguay, lead the agricultural sector and bill hundreds of millions a year.
In these times, some transgenics coexist with the toxic label. It is hard for society to understand that food and industrial products conjugate harmonically in the same sentence. There are studies that indicate that many of the current diseases are the result of a diet based on manipulated foods. That is why Gustavo Grobocopatel invests so much in labia. Immersed in trade forums such as the Association of Entrepreneurs of Argentina, the Economic and Social Council of the University T. Di Tella or LIDE Agribusiness, seeks to project a discourse that surrounds in green the products that it generates. Utility is central to Grobocopatel's narrative. Plants that in addition to food, provide industry. To this he adds an equally solid argument: his grains make the shopping list cheaper. Cereal cultivated with artisan techniques does not have the same price as one made at the macro level.
A peasant like Steve Jobs
Green lighting is changing the way we see things. Proof of this is the term peasant. The new country man knows business. He does not wear a suit, but he makes a difference with the traditional farmer. Shirt, good trousers and comfortable sports shoes. In addition, he is knowledgeable about cutting-edge planting, harvesting, irrigation and monitoring technologies.
Gustavo Grobocopatel presents himself as a kind of Steve Jobs or Bill Gates. A businessman who flees from the formalisms of the guild and tries to be transparent and convinced of what he produces. Flaunting the acuteness of engineers, has turned crisis into opportunities to make Los Grobo a successful company. In 1987, the fields were flooded and they had to look at third parties to continue producing. A success, given that they managed to produce on other people's land at very low prices. This is the current business dynamics. When soybean prices fell in the 1990s, as a result of the economic crisis, they saw quality as a cost-effective solution. From then on, the grain of Los Grobo is always backed by a distinctive stamp.
Looking at Wall Street and China
The entrepreneur trusts what he does. So much that it points to Wall Street. According to Sergio Dahbar, a columnist for ALnavío, Grobocopatel founded, along with 22 other agricultural producers, Bioceres, a biotechnology firm that was born in one of the most critical moments in Argentina: the corralito of 2001 decreed by the ex-president Fernando de la Rúa. "We were certain that biotechnology was a central issue in the future of the competitiveness of the agricultural sector and we also saw that the crisis expelled the scientists. It was then that we formed a platform between private investors and the world of science to retain to those workers, "summarized Gustavo Grobocopatel before the journalist Facundo Sonatti. At present, Bioceres is valued at more than 540 million euros (600 million dollars). And that none of the founders invested more than 500 euros. In addition, as indicated by Forbes in a report, is fulfilling the paperwork to jump to the financial heart and stock market of the United States. Gribocopatel has an eye on Wall Street and another one in the Chinese market.
The Asian giant experienced in 30 years the greatest economic transformation that is remembered. The country is growing at an accelerated pace in all senses. If this inertia continues, the population will begin to demand more and more food and infrastructure.
There they hope to be Los Grobo, supplying soy to China from China. If he succeeded, Gustavo Grobocopatel would stand at the top of the lectern, where, as a good singer, he would proclaim the bonanzas of a revolution he has made his own.
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Published by alnavio.com (Spain)