Find out more about Grupo BBF 's work in the municipalities of the Acará Valley

5min
08 January, 2024

The company develops sustainable agribusiness and creates thousands of jobs in the region

Pará, January 8, 2024 - In Pará, Grupo BBF (Brasil BioFuels) operates in the municipalities of Acará, Tomé-Açu, Concórdia do Pará and Moju. Its operations already have more than 5,000 direct employees, which represents around 85% of the company's overall workforce, and more than 450 family farmers. Another fundamental pillar for the company is its work with the communities of Pará.

With 15 years of operations in the Amazon region, Grupo BBF is a Brazilian company that operates in sustainable agribusiness from palm cultivation, biotechnology, biofuel production and renewable energy generation. The company currently has more than 75,000 hectares under oil palm cultivation. Of these, more than 60,000 hectares are planted in Pará, in the four agro-industrial centers located in the municipalities of the Acará Valley.

Oil palm cultivation in Brazil follows some of the strictest legislation in the world, defined by the Federal Government in Decree 7.172/2010, which established the Agroecological Zoning of Oil Palm, allowing it to be planted in degraded areas of the Amazon rainforest without cutting down any trees.

The entire cultivation process carried out by the company takes place in a virtuous cycle from seed to megawatt:

  • Choice of seeds: the company works with seeds that have the best genetic design available on the national and international market;
  • Continuous pre-sowing care: at this stage, the seeds are carefully planted by the hands of the women farmers and receive continuous monitoring during their first life cycles;
  • Nursery: a place where the seedlings receive the necessary care for 9 months;
  • Sustainable cultivation in the planting area: once the plant has been formed, it is definitively planted in the field;
  • Constant monitoring: ensuring that the seedlings are properly managed in the planted areas until they reach the adult stage - which takes around 4 years;
  • Harvesting the fresh fruit bunch: carried out by the company's agricultural team following the best safety, health and environmental practices;
  • Palm oil production: which in Pará is carried out at the Acará and Moju Poles.

Palm has many advantages. One of the most important, from a socio-economic point of view, is that its cultivation cannot be mechanized, which generates thousands of jobs and income for the population of the places where it is grown, as is the case of the municipalities in Pará where Grupo BBF operates. In addition, the entire production process of the palm chain can be implemented without cutting down any forest trees.

Currently, Grupo BBF is the largest palm oil producer in Latin America. Grupo BBF 's palm oil production capacity is around 200,000 tons a year. The raw material is processed in the company's own extraction plants, and most of the oil is produced in the state of Pará, which is the leading producer of palm oil in Brazil, according to data from the Brazilian Agricultural Research Corporation (Embrapa).

Grupo BBF strongly believes that through palm cultivation it is possible to develop sustainable agribusiness in the Amazon region, generating more opportunities in the countryside, where it is possible to develop professionals and improve the lives of families around the operations where it operates and contribute to the state.

About Grupo BBF

Grupo BBF (Brasil BioFuels), a Brazilian company founded in 2008, is the largest palm oil producer in Latin America, with a cultivated area of over 75,000 hectares and a production capacity of 200,000 tons of oil per year. The company is a pioneer in creating sustainable solutions for generating renewable energy in isolated systems, with thermoelectric plants powered by biofuels produced in the region. Its agricultural activity recovers areas that were degraded until 2007 in the Amazon, following the Oil Palm Agroecological Zoning (ZAE), approved by Decree 7.172 of the Federal Government, of May 7, 2010.

Grupo BBF has created an integrated business model in which it operates from the beginning to the end of the value chain - from sustainable oil palm cultivation, crude oil extraction, biofuel production, biotechnology and renewable energy generation - with assets totaling around R$2.2 billion and activities generating more than 6,000 direct jobs in the northern region of Brazil. Grupo BBF 's operations are located in the states of Acre, Amazonas, Rondônia, Roraima and Pará, comprising 38 thermoelectric plants (25 in operation and 13 under implementation), 3 palm oil crushing units, a soybean extruder and a biodiesel industry.

The company is expanding its supply of biofuels and has signed partnerships to produce Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF) and Green Diesel. The new sustainable fuels will be produced from 2026 at the country's first Biorefinery, which is currently under construction in the Manaus Free Trade Zone.