The largest palm oil producer in Latin America, Grupo BBF (Brasil Biofuels) has more than 230 job vacancies in São João da Baliza, in the south of Roraima, where it has a hybrid thermoelectric plant and grows oil palm, from which palm oil is extracted, the raw material that drives the enterprise.
The vacancies are distributed among maintenance operator, industrial mechanic, instrumentalist, general services, agricultural assistant, mechanical assistant, auto electrician, machine operator, auto mechanic, bus driver, and administrative.
To participate in the selection process, interested parties must deliver the resumes during business hours, in two addresses: Boa Vista (Avenida Capitão Júlio Bezerra, 663, Center) and São João da Baliza (BR-210, Gleba Jauaperi, Sítio Boa União, lot 574, rural area). The other option is to register on the company's website.
BBF was founded in 2008 in São João da Baliza, in the south of Roraima, where it began cultivating the oil palm plant in the locality. Currently, the company is operating a thermoelectric plant with capacity to generate 17 megawatts of power. The enterprise has more than 800 permanent workers and also plans to hire a group of indigenous employees of the Wai-Wai ethnic group, who live 40 kilometers from the company's headquarters.
The raw material, oil palm, is cultivated in São João da Baliza and also in São Luiz and Caroebe. In this region, BBF still intends to plant 100,000 hectares of the plant.
Grupo BBF is investing R$300 million to build a thermoelectric plant in Boa Vista, powered by oil palm, popularly known as dendê, the fruit capable of capturing carbon from the atmosphere. The project, scheduled to be delivered in June this year, promises to inject 56 megawatts of energy into Roraima's electricity system.
Last year, BBF filed with the State Foundation for the Environment and Water Resources (Femarh) the request for a preliminary license to install the thermoelectric plant. With this, the foundation determined the preparation of the EIA/RIMA (Environmental Impact Study/Environmental Impact Report).
In a consortium with the thermoelectric plant, the company promises to invest R$400 million in Roraima to plant corn ethanol. The planting site has not yet been defined, but the CEO of Grupo BBF, Milton Steagall, said that the area would have to be able to accommodate 30,000 hectares of corn and the work would take 24 months. "We can even work with producers who already exist in the state," he said.
Steagall explained that BBF invests in Roraima mainly because of its agricultural capacity, although he said that the only obstacle is the distance from Brazil's consumer markets.
"When you produce, you don't have a domestic consumption that can give basis for this growth of agribusiness. When you need to travel long distances to take Roraima's production to suitable markets, you start to leave all the advantages that nature gives you on the asphalt. With the BBF model, we plant, extract, transform and consume on site. So, we escape this infrastructure trap, which is sometimes deficient, and this cost, which is prohibitive," he explained.
By 2025, Grupo BBF intends to start producing the unprecedented sustainable aviation fuel and green diesel, also known as hydrotreated vegetable oil. The raw material for the biofuels will be palm oil produced in Roraima. Refining will take place at a plant under construction in the Manaus Free Trade Zone.
The new plant promises to be the first biorefinery in the country to produce the unprecedented biofuels on an industrial scale. The company expects to invest more than R$ 2 billion in this project. Initially, it will be possible to produce 500 million liters of the unprecedented biofuels annually.