Plant BSBIOS Marialva is inaugurated

BSBIOS and Petrobras Biofuel inaugurated on Friday (14/05/2010), the plant of biodiesel Marialva, located in the North of Paraná, in which one of the companies owns 50%. The ceremony marked the end of the works in the unit that has the capacity to produce 127 million liters of biodiesel per year. The total investment in this project was R$100 million.

In the press conference, the Chief Executive Officer of BSBIOS, Erasmo Carlos Battistella, said that the intention is to make a complete unit. "The plant has one of the best world technologies of biodiesel production within the national and international norms for product specification. Besides, it has flexibility to use raw material", he emphasizes.

Yet, Battistella highlighted during his speech some objectives to the advance of biodiesel in the country. "We wish and will do whatever it is possible so that at the World Cup the addition of biodiesel reaches the parameter of 10% (B10), and in 2020 it reaches 20%, besides encouraging biodiesel for the trucks of Formula Truck", he asserted.

The president of Petrobras Biofuel, Miguel Rossetto said that this undertaking is the result of a great group work. "This unit promises to be reference of in operational management and biofuels quality." According to him, for Petrobras the operation in the South of Brazil is strategic to the Company, since it offers the production of vegetable oil crops and the supply of a promising market, besides collaborating with the qualification of the energetic matrix of the country.

The state of Paraná is the third greater diesel consumer in the country and it is close to the first consumer which is the state of São Paulo, besides being the second greater producer of vegetable oil crops of Brazil, with large presence of the family agriculture. With the beginning of the plant activities, the state is on the way to become self-sufficient in biodiesel, which comes from other regions currently.

The president of Petrobras Biofuel also said that contributing to the development of the regions where it acts is part of the managerial culture. "We wish to generate employment and income in this region, increasingly encouraging the familiar agriculture, in such a manner that it receives our support to produce more and more".

Nearly seven thousand familiar farmers of the region will be involved for the supply of raw material for the production of biodiesel. For this purpose, the company keeps partnership with cooperatives and institutions of agricultural technical assistance and researches aiming at making the diversification and production of vegetable oil crops viable, mainly canola and soybean.

The Governor of the State of Paraná, Orlando Pessuti, and the representative of the Ministry of Rural Development, Marco Antônio Viana Leite also participated in the inauguration.

The representative of the Ministry also emphasized the importance of diversifying raw material and including familiar farm in the production of biodiesel. "Here we have two companies as reference in this diversification. From one side BSBIOS, with canola in Rio Grande do Sul, and the other side Petrobras Biofuel, with castor oil and sunflower in the semi-arid".

The governor of Paraná state ended the event remembering that the development of bioenergy in Paraná goes steadily forward. "We are meeting good environmental practices, with familiar farm, with employment and income generation and with an increasingly much better Brazil. We are going to make a partnership module of the private initiative from this plant with Petrobras", he concludes.

The plant will create 120 employments in the industrial area directly. During the works, 300 workers participated in the construction.

Incentive to familiar farm

For the supply of raw material for the production of biodiesel nearly seven thousand familiar farm employees are going to be included. The company encourages the production and diversification of vegetable oil crops, mainly canola, sunflower and soybean. And for that, it keeps partnership with familiar farmers, cooperatives and research and agricultural technical assistance institutions aiming at making the diversification and production of raw material viable.

Check on video the speech of the Chief Executive Officer of BSBIOS Erasmo Carlos Battistella.