As of this Thursday (2/5), a rule will come into force in the state of Pará that requires the registration of areas where oil palm fruit, known as dendê, is grown, processed and transported. The species gives rise to palm oil and its sale will be regulated and inspected by professionals from the Pará State Agricultural Defense Agency (Adepará), the state civil and military police.
The action has the support of the Brazilian Association of Palm Oil Producers (Abrapalma). Fábio Pacheco, vice-president of the association and agricultural director of Grupo BBF (Brasil BioFuels), explained that the "Vegetable Transit Guide" (GTV) - a document that certifies that the cultivation area follows the parameters established for production - will be fundamental for investigating and combating crimes that affect the state's economy, since it allows the illegal trade of palm oil from invaded land, which harms the chain, to be controlled.
"In Pará alone we have more than 200,000 hectares of plantations linked to Abrapalma which, pressured by the advance of disorderly occupation of productive areas, are under constant phytosanitary threats that could impact various crops such as açaí, cocoa, Brazil nuts, cupuaçu, coconut and pupunha," added Pacheco.
The action is part of a larger strategy, drawn up in 2023 and launched in January this year with Ordinance No. 6143/2023, to map, register and track the production of bunches of fresh oil palm fruit, by collecting a fee and issuing a Guide.
"As hashappened in other production chains with the implementation of the tool, producers will be able to provide information on the origin, destination and quantity of items transported and, in return, the state will guarantee legal certainty for the market, especially when strategies for tracking and certifying products from the Amazon are being discussed at global level," said Carlos Xavier, who chairs the Pará Agriculture Federation (Faepa), in a statement.
Producers are already being registered by Adepará, which has prioritized small and medium-sized producers. The entities' goal is to reach 1,267 productive farms in 32 municipalities in Pará.
For Lucionila Pimentel, Adepará's director of Plant Protection and Inspection, the GTV tool will control and provide greater transparency and sustainability for the production chain, further boosting the sale of palm oil in the state. "The transportation of bunches of fruit can only take place when a plant transit permit is issued and the inspection will monitor companies, transporters and other agents in the chain in relation to the quantities transported. So the product that leaves the field and enters the industries will be closely monitored by an intense inspection," he said.
The oil palm crop gives rise to the most widely consumed vegetable oil in the world and is very important for the state's agricultural development. According to the most recent figures for 2022 from the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE), Pará produced more than 2.9 million tons of palm oil in the year and leads national production.
Read the full article at: https://globorural.globo.com/agricultura/noticia/2024/05/par-comea-rastrear-produo-de-dend-este-ms.ghtml
