BioFach América Latina 2005

BioFach América Latina and ExpoSustentat 2005:
a BIG SUCCESS!

From November 16 to 18, the Riocentro, in Rio de Janeiro, hosted two fairs and two conferences, and received over four thousand people daily from 20 countries, who during those days focused on two things: organics and sustainability.

Several authorities attended the opening of BioFach Latin America and Expo Sustentat 2005, representing the commitment of their respective organizations to the organic sector and sustainable development. The presiding board for the opening ceremony was composed of Rosina Cordeiro Guerra (Director of Planeta Orgânico), Astrid Jakobs de Padua (Representative of the German Agriculture Ministry), Herta Krausmann (President of Nuremberg Global Fairs), Pipo Lernoud (Director of IFOAM), Celina Vargas do Amaral Peixoto (Director of Sebrae-RJ), Olavo Monteiro de Carvalho (President of the Rio de Janeiro Trade Association), Octavio Melo Alvarenga (President of the National Agricultural Society), Christino Áureo (Rio de Janeiro Secretary for Agriculture), Friedrich Prot Von Kunow (Ambassador of Germany), Roberto Rodrigues (Minister of Agriculture), Humberto Oliveira (Ministry of Agrarian Development), Marco Vales (City of Rio de Janeiro Secretary for Economic Development), Orlando Diniz (President of Fecomércio-RJ), Luiz Carlos Barbosa (Director of Sebrae), Maria Beatriz Martins Costa (Director of Planeta Orgânico), Doris Thurau (Director of GTZ-Brasil), Derci Alcântara (Director of Agribusiness at Banco do Brasil).

Minister Roberto Rodrigues and Herta Krausmann (President of Nuremberg Global Fairs)

"There is huge room for growth and we intend to reach 20% in organic produce in the next five to six years, giving incentives especially to small producers ".
Ministro Roberto Rodrigues

During the opening ceremony, the Minister for Agriculture and Food Supply (“MAPA”), Roberto Rodrigues, stressed that we are very close to regulating the Law for organic products, which is a basic necessity for organizing the sector. Farm products cultivated without the use of toxic chemicals, meat from animals treated with organic fodder, fabrics and cleaning products made from vegetable and natural raw materials will receive, early next year, a federal government label, ensuring the origin of the product and qualifying it to compete in the international market.

Minister Roberto Rodrigues and Rosina Guerra (Director of Planeta Orgânico)

According to Minister Rodrigues, "The regulation will provide the technical and conceptual bases for the label and for other instruments that will stimulate organic agriculture. In the next three or four months, we will have the definition of the regulation and, therefore, of the certification and other instruments for the sector", Rodrigues added.

According to Minister Roberto Rodrigues, organic farming in Brazil represents only 3% of the whole of the country’s agricultural output, while in developed countries the ratio is up to 20%. "There is huge room for growth and we intend to reach 20% in organic produce in the next five to six years, giving incentives especially to small producers".

German Ambassador Friedrich Prot Von Kunow,
Minister Roberto Rodrigues, Secretary Humberto Oliveira

Secretary Humberto Oliveira – duly representing the Minister of Agrarian Development, Miguel Rossetto – highlighted the activities of the Ministry (“MDA”), which has been investing in introducing family farming into the domestic and foreign organic markets.
In addition to PRONAF credit lines for family farms and programs for technical assistance and capacity building in organic agriculture, the MDA is a partner in numerous initiatives in agro-ecology and in fair trade, as presented in the MDA booths both at BioFach Latin America and at ExpoSustentat, where it was one of the highlights of this new Fair.

Before the official opening of the event, Minister Roberto Rodrigues talked to the representatives of several institutions of the State of Rio de Janeiro, the second largest market for organic products in Brazil.

The Rio de Janeiro Secretary for Agriculture, Christino Áureo, invited Minister Rodrigues to get to know the actions planned for 2006 for the organic sector in the State.

Secretary Marco Vales – representing the Mayor, Cesar Maia – pointed out the 2007 Pan-American Games as an opportunity for the sector, an idea that was promptly backed by Celina Vargas do Amaral Peixoto, Director of Sebrae RJ.

Orlando Diniz (Fecomércio), Luiz Carlos Barbosa (Sebrae), Celina Vargas (Sebrae RJ), Marco Vales (RJ Municipal Government), Octavio Alvarenga (SNA), Minister Roberto Rodrigues, Olavo Monteiro de Carvalho (ACRJ) and Christino Áureo (RJ Secretary for Agriculture)

Orlando Diniz (Fecomércio), Luiz Carlos Barbosa (SEBRAE), Maria Beatriz Martins Costa (Planeta Orgânico) and Doris Thurau (GTZ)

According to Herta Krausmann, a Fair for Sustainable Goods and Services – ExpoSustentat – opens up an opportunity for the dissemination of new projects committed to sustainable development. This initiative was praised by Doris Thurau, Director of GTZ.

GTZ supported the presentation of the Amazon Room at ExpoSustentat, in partnership with the Ministry of the Environment. The following products were exhibited in the Amazon Room: native fruit pulps, honey from native and stingless bees, deserts made from native fruits, nuts, vegetable oils, hand-made products using natural fibers and seeds, fish, flours, medicinal plants, etc.

In addition to the exhibition of products from communities in the Amazon Forest, meetings, talks and thematic debates involving the marketing of eco-social products, good management practices for natural resources, community management for projects, participative certification, organization of sales networks, etc., took place in the Amazon Room.

Products from the Amazon region could also be found in the Suframa booth, which made contact with cosmetics exhibitors, who were delighted at the diversity offered by the region.

Barú nuts, exhibited in the Amazon Room

Another novelty at ExpoSustentat was the Mundo Verde Room, which brought together over 100 franchise holders who held their annual Convention there.

Planeta Orgânico presentation at the Mundo Verde Convention during ExpoSustentat

Mundo Verde is the largest chain of natural product stores in Latin America, being present with over 100 units in various towns in Brazil, attending over 45,000 clients a day. Mundo Verde franchise holders had the opportunity to make various contacts, and Planeta Orgânico gave a presentation about the organic market during their meeting.

Among the highlights at BioFach Latin America and ExpoSustentat 2005 were the meetings scheduled by the Ministry of Agriculture and Food Supply, the Ministry of the Environment, the Ministry of Agrarian Development and SEBRAE that were held during the event, which became a meeting point for the discussion of public policy actions for the organic sector. The Ministry of Agrarian Development also organized meetings with exhibitors, visitors and buyers, showing investment opportunities in the family farming sector.

After the opening of BioFach Latin America 2005, a meeting was held at which the Organic Agribusiness Association (“AECO”), an entity representing organic companies and producers, invited Minister of Agriculture Roberto Rodrigues to be an honorary member of the association; he accepted the invitation and asked for the necessary procedures to be taken in order to make his membership effective. In addition to Minister Roberto Rodrigues, the following authorities were present: the President of AECO, Mr. Renato Hauptmann; the Coordinator of the MAPA’s Pro-organic Program, Mr. Rogério Dias; the President of the MAPA’s Sectorial Chamber for Organic Agriculture, Mr. José Pedro Santiago; and several representatives of the sector.

Sitting on the sofa: Agriculture Sec. Christino Áureo, Minister Roberto Rodrigues
and President of AECO, Renato Hauptmann

Volkert Engelsman, Executive President of EOSTA, a Dutch organic product trading company, gave the first presentation at BioFach Latin America 2005, talking about consumers’ expectations for the next few years and about Eosta’s TRACE&TELL system.

Organic products fit into the 3 trends indicated by Volkert, namely:

Health and Food Quality

Ecology and the Environment

Cultural and Social Responsibility

The Trace and Tell principle (traceability and track-record) is part of Eosta’s “Nature and More” program, which ensures the final consumer complete traceability, as well as the track-record of the products. To explain what Trace and Tell is all about, Volkert gave as a Brazilian example the products of Fazenda Tamanduá, located in Patos, State of Paraíba, one of the exhibitors at BioFach Latin America 2005.

Daniele Giovannucci, a consultant at IFAD (International Food for Agriculture Development), gave a presentation on the topic Organic Farming and the Reduction of Poverty. Daniele pointed out the 5 main challenges for Latin America, which are the following:

	Organic with a national brand-name
	Quality Production Chain – Certification alone is not sufficient
	Knowledge of organic production practices
	Working the domestic markets – Feed your own people well
	Certification costs and credibility

Harald Dittmar talked about Natural Cosmetics and Ute auf der Brücken gave a talk about Natural Fabrics. These are both growing markets which aroused great interest among those present at the event.

To learn more about these topics access the interviews published at Planeta Orgânico.

Greg Holzman, President of Pacific Organic, a US trading company for organic products, addressed the US organic market in his presentation.

The largest category of organic food corresponds to fruit and vegetables (fresh and frozen), next come products of animal origin (dairy products, meat, fish and chicken) and processed food (bread, grains, beverages, appetizers, sauces and spices). In 2003, the turnover in these categories was, respectively:
Fruit and vegetables	U$4.3 billion dollars
Animal products	$1.5 billion dollars
Processed food:	U$4.6 billion dollars

At the opening of ExpoSustentat, Maria Beatriz Martins Costa (Planeta Orgânico) and Udo Censkowsky (Organic Services) spoke about the opportunity this Fair will be for agro-ecological producers, fair trade, sustainable extraction activity, and so many organizations committed to sustainability, which will be receiving the visitors to the third BioFach Latin America, optimizing contacts and setting up new partnerships.

Udo Censkowsky (Organic Services) did presentation about ethical consumer trends. In England, ethical consumption grew by 12.5% from 2002 to 2003.

Udo also spoke about climate change and the high price planet Earth is paying for pollution and uninhibited consumption, without social and environmental responsibility.

The presentation on "Biodiversity Assessment in Organic Sugar Cane" delivered by Dr. José Roberto Miranda (Embrapa) only reinforces the thesis that Nature is grateful when it is well treated. One of the objectives of this beautiful work is to contribute to public policies in the environmental sphere.

Micro-basins were very well represented by Nelson Teixeira (Rio de Janeiro Secretary for Agriculture) and José Passini (Itaipu Binacional).

The direct results of micro-basin conservation are mostly unknown to the consumer, who is not aware of the importance of this care

Marcelo Brito, Commercial Director of Agropalma, spoke about Bio-diesel and renewable sources of energy. He presented some alarming facts, the following among them:
	Over sixty watchdog satellites were launched in the last 20 years.
	200,000 occurrences of clearing by burning are observed each year;
	That results in 75% of CO2 emissions in Brazil, which places us among the 5 largest CO2 emitters in the planet.

Rosimeiry Portela (Conservation International) accepted the challenge to speak about Markets for Eco-system Services: Current Trends, Challenges and Opportunities. Rosimeiry brought the information that the global contribution to the human economy amounts to US$33 trillion per year.

To create a model that will allow sustainable use of natural resources, generating good business opportunities and sustainable development for suppliers, Natura and its partners – that was what Maíra Vasconcellos explained in her presentation "Natural Market, Wellness and Biodiversity", presenting the case of Natura. Maíra stressed that there are business opportunities that preserve biodiversity.

Edson Corrêa, executive manager of Banco do Brasil’s Sustainable Rural Development area, explained this activity of the bank – a business action strategy directed to the places in which Banco do Brasil is present. Boosting sustainable development in the regions served, by mobilizing economic, political and social agents, is one of the objectives of this strategy.

On November 17 and 18, the talks given at BioFach Latin America addressed topics such as Organic Products and the Retail Sector, Harmonization in Latin America, Raw Materials and Agro-ecology, Promoting Access to the Market, and Organic Product Labeling.

Pipo Lernoud (IFOAM) spoke about the challenges to the small producer and stressed the risks of what he called "modern consumption". The world diabetes and obesity epidemic is already the object of public policies in several countries.

The APEX Brasil / OrganicsBrasil Room at BioFach Latin America was the venue for business meetings under the Buyer Project; Planeta Orgânico will be dedicating a special edition to these contacts. There were buyers from the USA and Germany, as well as journalists from those countries, who participated in the Image Project. US buyers Greg Holzman, of Pacific Organic, and Joseph Stern, of Organic Ingredients, said they were surprised at the potential of organic Brazil.

Udo Censkowsky (Organic Services), Dinah Mazzo (Brazil-Germany Chamber of Commerce),
Astrid Jakobs de Padua (German Ministry of Agriculture) and Raphael Heereman (Lufthansa Logistics Consultant)

On November 17, there was the APEX Seminar about the Brazilian / German Market, including a presentation of export success cases, as well as opportunities and challenges in the German organic market.

Eduardo Caldas (APEX Brasil) and Ming Liu (OrganicsBrasil Project) spoke about the next initiatives supported by APEX, including BioFach in Nuremberg, Germany, which will take place from February 16 to 19, 2006.

At the end of the APEX Seminar there was a round table moderated by the Organic Services consultant, Udo Censkowsky, with the participation of Astrid Jakobs de Pádua (Representative of the German Ministry of Agriculture), Dinah Mazzo (Brazil-Germany Chamber of Commerce) and Raphael Heereman (Lufthansa Logistics consultant).

There was also the Al Invest Business Round during BioFach Latin America, with the participation of Latin American companies, organized by the Mendoza Eurocenter.

The Argentine Pavilion brought together nine companies from the whole country, officially represented by the Argentine Organic Sector. Producers, certifiers and traders brought differentiated products for the Brazilian market, such as wines, olive oil and vinegar.
The Bolivian Pavilion also had the participation of special products, the highlight being quinoa, a cereal from the Andes which is beneficial for the health.

During BioFach Latin America, the book 'Organic Production - National and International Regulations" by Jean Pierre Medaets (Ministry of Agrarian Development) and Maria Fernanda Fonseca (PESAGRO), both speakers at BioFach Latin America 2005, was launched.

With a foreword by Secretary Valter Bianchini (whose talk on Family Farming and Renewable Energy Sources at ExpoSustentat was very popular), this book gathers together up-to-date information and is published just at the right moment, before the public consultation that will be undertaken regarding regulations for the organic sector.

Also within the recurring topics of information and food safety, Jaime Xavier spoke about the concern of Supermercado Zona Sul regarding the origin of organic products. "One newspaper article about problems in the analysis of a single product can jeopardize the whole sector", said Jaime.

Maria Beatriz Martins Costa (Planeta Orgânico) insisted on gastronomy as a partner for organic producers, both in forming opinion and as an alternative sales channel.

Cristina Ribeiro (ABIO), Ana Fanelli (Santa Luzia) Maria Beatriz Martins Costa (Planeta Orgânico), Cênia Salles (Empório Siriúba), Jaime Xavier (Zona Sul supermarkets)

After the round table on Organic Products and the Consumer, Roberta Marins de Sá presented the association between the Ministry of Agrarian Development and the Slow Food Foundation, together with Tereza Corção, who brought the moving documentary "Professor de Farinha" (“Flour Teacher”), of which she was the author. It would be impossible to find a better message to conclude these 3 days!...


Natural cosmetics receive special attention at BioFach Latin America and ExpoSustentat 2005
	Natural cosmetics receive special attention at BioFach Latin America and ExpoSustentat 2005. Natural or organic cosmetics are the highlight among non-food organic products. A survey carried out at the German organic chain Wellness showed that natural products for body care represent 19% of the whole market, including food.

Buyer and Image projects enabled importers and media representatives from Europe and the USA to come to BioFach Latin America

The Buyer and Image projects, carried out by Apex Brasil and by the OrganicsBrasil Project, enabled the visit of entrepreneurs in the import and communications areas from Europe and the USA.

A seminar held at the Conference, simultaneous with the Fair, discussed the trade in organic products between Brazil and Germany.