The Regional Development Bank of the Far South (BRDE) financed R $ 191.9 million, between January and November 2020, to agricultural cooperatives in Paraná. Copacol, based in Cafelândia, and Lar, in Matelândia, are among the cooperatives that received credit support this year.
Currently, the bank has 60% of its portfolio aimed at farmers and agro-industries. Even operating only in the three states of the South Region, it is the largest operator of the Cooperative Development Program (Prodecoop) of the National Bank for Economic and Social Development (BNDES). “The credit lines allow agroindustries to grow and become a power in the state. In addition, all this advancement moves the economy of Paraná, generating jobs and business ”, says BRDE’s Director of Operations, Wilson Bley Lipski.
EXPANSION
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Through the Prodecoop line, BRDE supported Copacol in a project to expand the slaughterhouse. The cooperative, which has had a chicken slaughterhouse in Cafelândia since the 1980s, contracted a financing of R $ 60 million in 2020. In 2018, it had already contracted another financing, in the amount of R $ 50 million, for the first stage of the project.
With the credit, the pioneer among the cooperatives in the region intends to increase the daily slaughter capacity from 330 thousand to 360 thousand birds a day. The amount foreseen in the expansion plan is R $ 210 million.
This investment also helps in the issue of jobs, since Copacol employs 10.8 thousand employees, of which 5.5 thousand are in the slaughterhouse. The cooperative still participates in Unitá, a central cooperative that owns a poultry slaughterhouse in Ubiratã (Midwest). Today, Unitá slaughters 340,000 birds a day and employs 4,200 employees.
Recently, this slaughterhouse was financed by BRDE, together with other financial institutions, in two stages (the last one being concluded in 2019), in the amount of R $ 111.5 million.
“BRDE is and has always been a bank that helps to grow. The credit lines provided by him are extremely important to participate in the domestic and foreign markets. This gives room to grow and think about great solutions for the cooperative”, says the president of Copacol, Valter Pitol.
Also in the western region of Paraná, in 2020 the bank financed the Lar cooperative, which owns a chicken slaughterhouse in Matelândia and is carrying out a slaughter expansion project. The plan is for the slaughtering capacity to increase from 340,000 to 460,000 birds a day.
The project will also be developed in two stages. Therefore, in 2020, the cooperative, through Prodecoop, obtained financing in the amount of R $ 50 million to carry out the first stage of the project, budgeted at R $ 55.8 million.
The second phase, budgeted at R $ 66.6 million, is already under analysis as well. After its conclusion, in 2021, it is expected to hire 1,150 new employees. Today, the cooperative employs 17,900 employees, of which 7,500 are in the slaughterhouse alone.
“BRDE credit lines are always very important because they are usually long-term, at competitive costs,” says Lar’s financial administrative superintendent, Clédio Marschall.
According to him, the loans released by the Bank contributed to Lar’s growth. “Only in 2020, the cooperative will grow above 50% in relation to 2019. This demands resources, which generate employment, income and adding value to the production and transformation of Paraná’s economic scenario”, highlights Marschall.
MADE IN PARANÁ
The two Cooperatives are also partners of BRDE in the BRDE Labs Program for accelerating startups, which seeks innovative solutions for transforming agribusiness.
currently, according to data from the Paraná Cooperative Organization (Ocepar), there are 215 cooperatives in the state, 60 of which are in the agricultural sector. There are 2 million members and the sector generates about 100 thousand direct jobs across Paraná.
Connected to cooperatives, there are 79 agro-industries. According to Ocepar, there are 19 cooperatives with agro-industries in the meat segment (which include cattle, pigs, chickens, fish and lambs).
