Summit with the Brazilian food chain
held at Dow Brazil’s headquarters,
in São Paulo, on May 28.
Learn more about the main solutions,
challenges and opportunities discussed
during the summit.
Sustainable solutions
for the food chain.
Brazil. Feeding a growing world.
Share these results
with your network!
Summary
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04
The Challenge
06
Production
12
Efficient Delivery: Packaging
and Cold Chain
16
Health and Nutrition
20
Dow Supermarket
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Next Steps
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Results
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The challenge
The challenge of feeding the world
In 2050, the world’s population will reach 9 billion
people. By then, we will need to increase food production
by 70 percent to be able to feed this growing population
and provide people with more nutritious, healthier and
tastier food. How can we so much in such a short period of
time? To answer this question, Brazil has to be mentioned:
the country will be responsible for 40 percent out of the 70
percent necessary to increase in production.
Opportunities are huge. With this in mind, we decided to
bring the Brazilian food chain together at Dow Brazil to discuss
the topic in a summit themed Sustainable Solutions for the
Food Chain. Brazil – feeding a growing world, held in São
Paulo on May 28. The summit was attended by 200 partners
from the Brazilian food value chain: from food producers to
processing companies and retailers, representatives from
the cold chain, plastic packaging manufacturers, customers
from different businesses, governments and associations’
representatives.
The participation of attendees transformed the summit
into an important forum for the exchange of experiences
by means of speeches, roundtables, the exhibition of
technologies at Dow Supermarket – in which more than 60
solutions offered by the Company were presented-, and the
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five breakout sessions that counted on the participation of
key members from the food chain.
It was a unique opportunity to debate, anticipate trends
and join forces. Although Dow Brazil provides this industry
with innovative technologies, the Company is not able to
implement the necessary changes alone. So that Brazil
continues to be one of the world’s major food producers,
all players of the food chain have to work together. In the
following pages, you will find the main conclusions and
results of this unprecedented summit focused on the
Brazilian food value chain. We hope this report is the first
step of richer discussions that eventually overcome frontiers.
Pedro Suarez
President of Dow for Latin America
Watch the full opening session video
“It was a unique opportunity to debate, anticipate trends and join
forces. Dow provides this industry with innovative technologies,
but the Company depends on the efforts of the entire food chain to
implement the necessary changes so that Brazil continues to be one of
the world’s major food producers. And this will only be possible if all
players work together.”
Pedro Suarez, President of Dow for Latin America, in his opening speech
Watch the full speech video
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Production
Production
Today, the Brazilian agribusiness
answers for 22 percent of the country’s
Gross Domestic Product (GDP). The
higher productivity levels in the field
are undeniable, what makes Brazil one
of the world’s main breeding grounds.
But it is necessary to do more: Brazilian
farmers are expected to be responsible
for 40 percent of all food production
in the future, according to FAO (Food
and Agriculture Organization of the
United Nations).
The expansion of the world’s
agricultural area is limited. The total
agricultural area is likely to increase less
than 5 percent (some 70 million hectares)
by 2050, what means that 90 percent of
the additional production (80 percent
in developing countries) depends on
higher productivity levels and more
intensive production processes, as
it has been happening for the last 50
years, according to FAO.
Opportunities are unlimited, but
we need to know how not to waste
them. That is why this debate is so
important – theme of the roundtable
Productivity in the Field: Less Waste,
More Food for a Growing World, about
how the domestic production (and the
entire food chain) must work so that
we can continue to feed – with quality
products – a hungry world.
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Watch the full roundtable video
“We have by far the best tropical agricultural technology. For
the last 23 years, the production of grains has increased 225
percent, whereas the harvested area rose only 41 percent.
This is technology. The Brazilian agribusiness has been
playing its role when it comes to food and energy security.”
“Except with a governmental strategy will we
be able to reach the 40 percent we are expected
to. We have to think about production chains,
otherwise, we will not be able to.”
“In 2050, we will be 9 billion people
in the planet, and the agricultural
production has to increase 70
percent by then. However, there is no
consistent global program actually
focused on increasing food production
at this level.”
Roberto Rodrigues, former Minister of
Agriculture, Livestock and Food Supply and
current coordinator at Fundação Getúlio
Vargas; the summit keynote speaker
Watch the full speech video
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Production
“We have been seeking sustainable solutions that are useful
for both farmers and consumers and that comply with the
standards established by regulating agencies”
John Cuffe, Global Leader for Regulatory Sciences and
Government Affairs for Dow AgroScienses
“The agricultural sector has experienced deep changes for the past 40 years.
Today, it is based on science and technology; 68 percent of the GDP of the
agriculture and livestock farming sector is explained by technology. Productivity
gains are the major factor that demonstrates that. But Brazil invested only 1.5%
of the agriculture and livestock farming GDP in research in 2008, while OECD
countries invested twice as many, that is, 3%. To expand the investments in
research is a challenge for the country”
Geraldo Martha, General Coordinator of Embrapa’s Strategic Intelligence
System (Agropensa)
“All indicators point to an increase in productivity and efficiency
levels, what is directly related to the use of technologies in all
production chains. The communication among the players in the
chain to focus on common interests is one of our major challenges,
and that is what Dow is doing here today”
Eduardo Riedel, President of Famasul - Federation of Agriculture
and Livestock of the State of Mato Grosso do Sul
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“In Brazil, we have an enormous advantage.
We produce food for a growing demand, higher
than the supply. Both the industry and farmers
have prepared themselves. But it is necessary to
remember that consumers have been incorporating
better eating habits, moved to urban centers and
evolved in their preference for healthier food with
affordable prices”
Miguel Gularte, CEO of JBS Mercosur
In the Production breakout session, participants from partner companies addressed several
aspects of the Brazilian production capacity. Check the group’s main conclusions and
discussions in the Results section (page 24).
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Produção
Watch the full roundtable video
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The summit organized by Dow
encouraged the exchange of
ideas during the speeches and
roundtables, in addition to the
dissemination of topics
of interest in social networks
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Efficient Delivery: Packaging and Cold Chain
Efficient Delivery
Until it reaches consumers’ tables, food goes a long
way that, unfortunately, is often marked by waste. In fact,
54 percent of the world’s food waste occurs “upstream”
during production, post-harvest handling and storage
–, whereas the other 46 percent happens “downstream,”
at the processing, distribution and consumption stages,
according to FAO.
To think about a near future of 9 billion people is to find
innovative solutions today for the efficient delivery of food.
This involves the development of new packaging (easy to
open, extended shelf life, etc.), the improvement of the
logistic infrastructure, and the development of state-of-theart equipment, among many other actions discussed during
the summit promoted by Dow.
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To reduce waste, producers, the industry and the retail sector will have to jointly
overcome the challenge of protecting food with packaging that is more resistant during
transportation, that brings more information and that offers a higher preservation
capacity, from the production in the field to the supermarkets’ shelves.
“Nutrition must be healthy and safe, and consumers need to value that. Another
issue is food waste. Globally, the amount of water used with food waste is higher
than the amount of water consumed in the United States and China. Additionally,
food waste is the third largest issuer of CO2, behind only these two countries.
This summit provides us with a full view of the true meaning of this production
chain, and the issues related to waste and healthy nutrition are challenges to be
overcome by all players that are part of it”
Helio Mattar, President of Akatu Institute for Conscious Consumption
“The broader access to information has been changing the power
relationship between consumers and the industry. Inflation and
unemployment rates are no longer the major concern among Brazilians.
Today, healthability (access to health, quality of life and increase in
the demand for healthier food) is their main concern. Finally, trans fats,
for example, have been completely excluded from Unilever’s products.
Additionally, we now provide additional nutritional information.
Consumers are no longer willing to pay for the certification, traceability
and information. They consider them their right”
Fernando Fernandez, CEO of Unilever Brazil
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Efficient Delivery: Packaging and Cold Chain
The participants of the roundtable The way to consumers tables: more access, more health,
less waste pointed out that waste reduction is partially achieved through the growing use of
efficient and attractive packaging.
“The reduction of waste has to do with packaging once
waste is in the field, in the transportation and in the
retail segment. We, retailers, can encourage the use of
technologies to reduce losses, but it is necessary to work
on the cost issue together. Consumers, in turn, need to
know that the environmental impact will be lower, although
the packaging cost is higher. But the retail sector is not
able to do that alone”
Aparecido Borghi, Packaging Development Manager for GPA
“Packaging plays a key role for the sustainability of the food chain. We
need to do our best to preserve food throughout the chain to prevent it from
spoiling or being wasted. In addition to that, packaging has to be attractive.
The future is promising in this field with so many new materials being
launched”
David Parrillo, Director of Research & Development for Packaging for Dow
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“From 30 to 40 percent of all food is wasted globally. The
amount of food wasted is lower only than the amount
consumed in the United States and China. It is of utmost
importance to engage governments, the industry, universities
and organizations to find solutions for the feeding issue. It is
precisely for this reason that Brazil will only be able to meet this
demand through the alignment of the entire chain”
A. N. Sreeram, Corporate Vice President of R&D for Dow
Watch the full speech video
In the Efficient Delivery:
Packaging and Cold Chain
breakout session, participants
analyzed several aspects of food
transportation that depend on
refrigeration, from production to
sales, and on the development of
more efficient packaging. Learn
more about the main conclusions
in the Results section (page 24).
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Health and Nutrition
Health and nutrition
More than increasing food production for the next years,
it will be necessary to provide people with more nutritious
and healthier products. After all, the global population is
getting older and consumers in developing countries want to
eat more and better, just to mention two main trends that
have been changing the entire chain.
Almost one billion people suffer from hunger all over the
world – and this same number of people suffers from obesity,
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according to FAO. Many companies, for example, have
excluded the trans fat from their launches and reformulated
their portfolio to include functional food.
In the field, farmers have been committed to the future
through the adoption of new production processes able to
ensure the production of increasingly healthier types of
food. The debate was marked by the learning that there are
opportunities from end to end.
People’s awareness of the importance of consuming more nutritious food involves the publicizing
of campaigns about healthier lifestyles. In this sense, the Olympic Games are an important
platform to disseminate this message once, because once they are the world’s largest sporting
event, they attract the attention of millions of people.
“The Olympic Games are a major platform for education because
they are one of the world’s most respected events. For the
second year, our Get Active program, which counts on the
participation of prominent athletes, has reached more than 400
million people with the message that we need to be more active.
Think about that as a channel to raise people’s awareness of
having a healthier lifestyle”
George Hamilton, Vice President for the
Olympic Operations for Dow
“In a survey conducted by the Akatu Institute, in which we asked Brazilian
consumers the meaning of happiness for them, 66 percent answered that,
in first place, happiness is related to their own health and their family’s
health. Therefore, the delivery of healthier food by the industry is of utmost
importance. Any sustainability effort towards this does not meet a competitive
differential, but an absolute need of both consumers and the society”
Helio Mattar, President of the Akatu Institute for Conscious Consumption
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Health and Nutrition
Consumers’ awareness around nutritional and
healthier lifestyles is a growing concern and a
trend in the industry. This has been leading many
companies to make changes to their portfolios
and adopt new and more nutritious formulations.
In Brazil, this change is related to the fact that the
population is getting older and also due to the
higher purchasing power of the classes C and D.
For this reason, the participants of the summit
organized by Dow Brazil pointed out that it is
necessary to better explain the initiatives adopted
by food companies so that consumers are well
informed and able to reeducate themselves to
adopt a healthier lifestyle.
“We need to better explain what we have been doing
in terms of innovations so that consumers can be well
informed and reeducate themselves”
Leonardo Correa de Souza Lima, Corporate Director
for Arcos Dourados for Latin America
“We have identified a trend: consumers want healthier food. We conducted a number
of surveys and repositioned our own brand, in addition to having revised our portfolio
of products to reduce the levels of sodium, sugar and trans fat. Yes… consumers are
concerned with that and know what they want for themselves”
Aparecido Borghi, Packaging Development Manager for GPA
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The changing consumption habits among Brazilians directly affect the food chain. Companies need to develop
healthier, practical and more convenient food, in addition to tastier products that also offer better nutritional values.
These were some of the topics addressed by the participants in the Health and Nutrition breakout session. Read more
in the Results session (page 24).
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More than 60 solutions that offer more safety, functionality
and integrity to food were introduced at Dow Supermarket.
Some highlights were:
• PacXpert™: innovative solution in flexible packaging that
combines ease of opening/closing with improved ergonomics.
• Omega-9 Oils: oils with a high content of healthy
monounsaturated fat, free from trans fat.
• WELLENCE™ Gluten Free: the solution replaces the use
of gluten in food while maintaining its texture, volume and
structure even after baking.
• RIPELOCK™: special packaging with SmartFresh™, that
prevents banana over-ripeness and sugar spotting for seven to
nine days.
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Next steps
Combining efforts
The summit promoted by Dow
showed that it is necessary to
unite efforts and put ideas into
practice. The sense is that there
is a lot to be done, but the first
step – to sit at the table to share
expectations
and
establish
strategies – has already been
taken. It is time to proceed and
transform proposals into concrete
actions to have a well fed and
healthy world. In this sense, the
breakout sessions allowed Dow’s
representatives and companies
to share experiences and debate
ideas about concrete working
projects and ideas. The next
pages bring the main conclusions
reached with these discussions –
and the next steps to be taken by
the Brazilian food chain.
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“This is an event of the entire food chain.
It is about having all players working
together to offer more sustainable
solutions for the growing challenge of
feeding the world in the most effective
and efficient way possible”
Howard Ungerleider,
Executive Vice President for Advanced
Materials
Watch the full speech video
“Initiatives like this do promote a remarkable
transformation because all segments are
represented here, from farmers to consumers and we are all consumers. Additionally, it allows
us to learn more about the demands of each
player of the food chain. Our ability to evolve has
to follow the market’s exponential growth and, at
the same time, it means a great opportunity to fill
in an almost blank page”
Miguel Gularte, CEO of JBS Mercosur
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Results
From discussion to action
The summit organized by Dow was an opportunity to exchange information and align the expectations of different players
of the chain. More important than it, the event promoted the debate, allowed the identification of perspectives and
encouraged the beginning of projects shared between Dow and its partners. Check out below some discussions and
ideas on projects:
• 200 participating companies.
• Introduction of Dow’s solutions to the participants.
• 2 roundtables and 5 breakout sessions.
• 18 posts on Dow’s page in Twitter and 62 retweets.
• Joint projects (Dow/partners) conceived during the
breakout sessions (see below).
• 1044 “likes” in 5 posts and 3 photo galleries on Dow’s
page in Facebook.
CARBON MITIGATION BREAKOUT SESSION
EFFICIENT DELIVERY – COLD CHAIN BREAKOUT
SESSION
Participants: BRF and McDonald’s
Participants identified three action opportunities, all of
them related to the Olympic Games to take place in Rio de
Janeiro in 2016:
• Food waste: one of the factors that has been leading
to an increase in CO2 emissions. In this sense, the
Olympic Games are an important platform to create
awareness of conscious consumption and habits.
• Carbon mitigation: Dow has developed a plan for the
2016 Olympic Games with a portfolio of projects and
engagement actions (as it happened in Sochi, Russia).
• Sustainability: During the 2016 Olympic Games, a
large amount of meals will be served, what represents
an opportunity for Dow to participate in the supply of
food made from sustainable sources together with its
partners. It is also possible to create partnerships
for the implementation of energy efficiency solutions
and the conscious use of packaging.
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Participants: JBS Friboi, São Rafael, Maersk, Danica, Martin
Brower, BRF, and Unicamp
The main conclusions of the breakout session about
the cold chain were:
• It is necessary to develop training materials to
educate and engage the chain about the best
practices and technologies.
• Optimization of counters: supermarkets’ horizontal
and vertical refrigerators are not optimized according
to the type of food and the materials used in cold
trucks and chambers could be better developed.
• Review of flammability standards.
• Offering training to transportation teams to better
control temperature.
• To create an education and training platform
focused on small and medium commercial
businesses in Brazil.
EFFICIENT DELIVERY – PACKAGING BREAKOUT
SESSION
Participants: Fischer, Geiger, GPA, Toledo & Associados, and Dow
The participating companies gathered to discuss
packaging-related trends. One of the opportunities identified
is especially related to the storage of apples. Check the
points discussed:
• The growing concern among consumers with
healthability creates the opportunity to increase the
consumption of apples through the development
of differentiated packaging: practical packaging
solutions with an improved visual appeal.
• The group discussed the possibility of positioning
apples as a type of food that is healthy and that can be
conveniently consumed in different hours of the day. This
change in consumers’ habits involves the development
of packaging with excellent storage capabilities, in
addition to educational campaigns about the benefits of
eating fruit and vegetables for one’s health.
PRODUCTION BREAKOUT SESSION
Participants: Dow Química, Dow AgroSciences, JBS Friboi, McDonald’s, Acrimat, Oroagri, and Agroquima
Participants of this breakout session focused on the
meat segment by identifying trends, such as the broader
assimilation of technology and increase in production
through the use of degraded pastures, in addition to
making consumers understand the benefits of eating
meat. Other topics included:
• Educate cattle raisers by means of CAR (Cadastro Ambiental
Rural – Rural Environment Record): mapping of properties
and study on the use of soil to improve pastures.
• Logistics and labor laws: The objective is to quantify the
cost of these two topics for each player of the meat chain.
• Communication with consumers: To highlight the
benefits of meat for one’s health and the use of QR
Code tools in packaging, showing the benefits of eating
quality meat.
HEALTH AND NUTRITION BREAKOUT SESSION
Participants: BRF, Genkor, Tovani Benzaquen, WOW, Nutritec,
and Grupo Selmi
The main trends identified by the participants were:
• Indulgence (associated with food taste): to improve the
visual appeal, texture and convenience of products.
• Healthability: Reduction of fat levels, replacement of
harmful fats by healthier oils, such as sunflower, olive
and Omega-9 oils, and replacement of gluten by a
cellulose-base food additive.
• Communication with the food chain: Information about
the innovations related to indulgence and healthability
that can be offered to the industry’s companies.
All the teams are working on the development of
projects that will be soon shared with you. We are
looking forward to having your input to help the growth
of the Brazilian food chain.
Thank you.
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Click here to access Dow’s
Sustainable Solutions for
the Food Chain page
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Thank you.
www.dowbrasil.com
Feedback:
Contact Regina Moura
Business Communication Manager for Dow for Latin America
[email protected]