São Paulo – The Algerian company Cevital and the government of Pará state signed Thursday (8th) night, in Belém, a protocol of intentions for investments in the State. The Algerian company has plans for agriculture, livestock, soy processing and for the logistic and steel sectors in several counties throughout the state. Cevital’s president, Isaad Rebrab, is in Brazil and should stay until next week to decide where the resources will be invested and the amount to be destined to the projects, as well as the full schedule.
According to information released by Para’s Secretary of Economic Development, Mining and Energy (Sedeme), the group wants to invest in the agribusiness production chain. The first project should be implemented in Vila do Conde county, set to host a refinery of vegetable oils and a production line of cattle feed.
The opening of a slaughterhouse for beef export to Algeria is also in the company’s plans, said the president during the signing of the agreement with Pará’s governor Simão Jatene (PSDB) and with Sedeme’s head, Adnan Demachki.
Rebrab said that he already visited several counties in Pará that could host the projects and that the company is certain that “it’s entering Brazil through the right door”. Besides Vila do Conde, other counties to host plants of the company are Paragominas, Santana do Araguaia, Barcarena, Marabá and Santarém. “Our goal is to add value to the Brazilian input to supply, first, to the local market, and later to our own importer market”, he said.
The company plans to expand Para’s logistical capacity to be able to transport out part of its production to Brazil and the Arab country. “Pará’s ports are closely located to Europe and Africa. This is one of the reasons that attracted us. The other important reason is that when I came to Brazil, I noticed that the country’s great difficulty is logistics, since, a lot of times, the Brazilian food product loses competitiveness due to the local logistics, which sometimes costs twice the price of the product”, said the executive.
Cevital has confirmed that it intends to join a consortium to bid for the Ferrovia Paraense (Fepasa) railway concession. Its plan is to supply the railroad tracks via its steel plant in Italy. The project is in the environmental impact assessment stage.
“We don’t want to simply be a raw materials producer, we want to be producers and to export foodstuffs, value-added items. They (Cevital) also have tradition in a few areas of logistics that are key to us, because they minimize our costs and difficulties and enhance our competitiveness,” said governor Simão Jatene.
The company and the state of Pará have been discussing the investment for a few months. In May, Jatene travelled to Algeria and visited some companies of the Cevital conglomerate, which is active in 20-plus countries in industries such as auto distribution, industry, trade and agribusiness, among others. In January this year, the company announced that it planned to invest USD 1.5 billion in Brazil’s Pará and Mato Grosso states.
*Translated by Sérgio Kakitani & Gabriel Pomerancblum
