EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW
BLAIROMAGGI
Minister of Agriculture, Livestock and Food Supply (Mapa)
Forastrongrural
middleclass
“I amoptimistic”
I
f there is anyone in Brazil who, in real terms, is deeply acquainted with the reality of production, administration, trade and sec-
toral leadership in the agribusiness environment, this person, without any doubt, is and should be Blairo Maggi. Minister of Agri-
culture, Livestock and Food Supply in the government of president Michel Temer, having taken office in May 2016, since then, Blai-
ro, 60 years old, has been articulating a series of actions and programs in areas in which, even as rural producer and entrepreneur,
he knows that there is not enough public investment.
Born on 29th May 1956, in Torres, State of Rio Grande do Sul, near the border with Santa Catarina, Blairo grew up in Paraná, in the
town of SãoMiguel do Iguaçu, where his familymovedwhen hewas still a child. On Paraná soil his father, André AntonioMaggi, found-
ed Sementes Maggi, in 1973, starting a conglomerate which eventually almost turned into an empire in agribusiness.
In his trajectory, he was acknowledged as the biggest rural soybean producer in the world, besides making hefty investments in
cotton and corn. Now, Grupo Amaggi (in honor of his dad), founded by Blairo, its leading shareholder, with vast operations in Mato
Grosso, between the capital city, Cuiabá, and the region of Rondonópolis, is a powerful enterprise with operations in several areas
linked to agricultural production, trade and the generation of energy.
Besides the leadership position and an articulator in a series of activities and organizations, Blairo joined public life, having been
governor of Mato Grosso from 2003 to 2010, and senator, elected by Mato Grosso, from 2011 and 2016, when he accepted the invita-
tion to take office as Minister of Agriculture. Once in office, one of his first timely actions was the creation of the Agro Plan +, in an at-
tempt to reduce bureaucracy in several agribusiness processes and, therefore, speed up decision taking processes whilst implement-
ingmeasures essential for the sector. In this exclusive interview, by e-mail, inmid-January, minister Blairo Maggi reveals his optimism
and full confidence in a resumption of Brazilian businesses abroad and in the area of agribusiness, whose reflections tend to be im-
mediate and positive, as far as the national socioeconomic scenario goes.
Theturbulentscenarioin2016tendstogivewaytoanewproductionandmarket
environment,nowgettingofftoagoodstartwithanall-timerecordcrop
Revista AgroBrasil
– 2016 was a rather
turbulent year in Brazil, by virtue of the re-
cession and political instability. However,
agribusinessonceagainwasresponsiblefor
thebiggest surplus on record in thebalance
of trade, in part, equally thanks to a reduc-
tion in imports. What would you highlight
as positiveandnegative in theagribusiness
environment, over theyear?
Minister Blairo Maggi
– We had many
positive points. After all, agribusiness was
the only sector that managed to face the
economic crisis and ensure the generation
of jobs and income. From January to No-
vember 2016, Brazilian agricultural exports
amounted to US$ 66.7 billion. With the mis-
sions we carried out abroad in 17 countries,
22 of our products found their way into the-
se foreignmarkets. The highlight is the con-
clusion of the agreement to export fresh
beef to the United States, along with ther-
mally processed chicken meat to South
Korea, chicken meat and pork to Vietnam
and thermally processed beef to Japan. In
short, we had lots of good news. The nega-
tive point was the so-called El Niño, which
adversely affected the production of grains,
even in the State of Mato Grosso, where the
climate is usually very regular.
With your experience as producer, en-
trepreneur and sectoral leadership, now, as
Minister of Agriculture, what do you think is
most urgent in order to sustainBrazil’s pro-
minent position in the production of food
and rawmaterials?
Since I took over as Minister of Agri-
culture, my target has been to increase,
in five years, from 6.9% to 10% Brazil’s
share in the global agricultural market. It
is a market of US$ 1.8 trillion a year, and
Brazil’s bigger share would represent an
extra U$ 30 billion in the Gross Domestic
Product (GDP). But to this end we need
to add value to our products and expand
the portfolio of Brazilian agribusiness
products. Within this context, we have to
focus on what we are good at and get the
sector on track. That is why we created
Agro+, a program that reduces bureau-
cracy in the ministry’s procedures, with
the aim to make rural producers’ lives
easier, thus developing with quality and
responsibility.
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