Largest sustainable palm oil producer of the American continent, Agropalma preserves 64 thousand hectares of forest reserves, an area equivalent to 60% of the farms owned by the company in inland Pará. Surveys originated from the 15-year partnership forged with NGO Conservation Internacional have registered 1,029 fauna species in the reserves, with 40 of those threatened of extinction. Most of the threatened species of the Amazon is in the eastern area, which has an extensive history of degradation. “From an environmental preservation standpoint, these remnant forest fragments are key to preserving the species and the Agropalma area is extremely important for that”, highlights Marcos Pérsio, from the Biological Sciences Institute of Universidade Federal do Pará (UFPA).

Patricia Medici, scientist and coordinator of the Lowland Tapir Conservation Initiative (LTCI), adds: “the permanent culture of palm minimizes so called border effect in forest reserves, in other words, palm trees planted beside forests protect the forest borders against fires, strong winds, insolation and other degrading agents, in addition to decreasing the amount of area insulation for some fauna species”.

And in order to maintain commitment with environmental preservation, Agropalma is constantly innovating. The company will start using biomass as an energy source to fuel the boilers of the refineries in Belém / PA and Limeira / SP. This fuel type shall contribute even more positively with the carbon cycle, as it would reduce the environmental aggression of the release of ash remnants, among other benefits.

Beny Fiterman, chairman of Agropalma, highlights that the COVID-19 pandemic required a series of adaptations – challenges that helped the company to change itself for the better, after the global health crisis. “Agropalma has strengthened its commitment with the highest transparency and accountability models. We also adopted a corporate restructuring plan, submitting a new product portfolio and updated the visual identity, with the launch of the new company brand”, he describes.

The most recent version of Agropalma’s sustainability report, published in 2022, shows an increase of brute palm oil extraction rate, from 18.68% (2020) to 18.87% (2021) – last year this percentage remained high, reaching 19%. And, to meet quality standards required by global customers, that operate especially in the food and cosmetics industries, Agropalma has developed 41 products with high aggregated value between 2019 and 2021.

Source: O Estado de São Paulo (06/05/23)