Entrepreneur Marcello Guimarães wants to plant the world’s largest African mahogany forest, about 24,000 hectares, in up to 10 years. Work on the Fazenda Recreio farm in Boa Vista (RR) already shows good results: five years ago, the planting occupied a modest 14 hectares. Now there are almost 500 acres.
The company’s goal is to revolutionize the wood production market in Brazil. “The expectation is that, in the next 36 years after planting, we will start selling wood to the US, Europe, China, etc.,” says Guimarães.
Computer programmer, Marcello bet on technology to increase production efficiency. Along with his brother, who is also in the area of computer science, he will invest R $ 487 million in the business. The expected turnover is R $ 11 billion in just over 30 years.
The pace of planting is also accelerating, with an average of 150,000 seeds per month. According to the forestry engineer Poliana Andrade, the differential in the work is that the seed quality the process of breaking dormancy. “After being planted in the tubes, they are sent home to germination. At the beginning of the process, they are irrigated. Then we cut the irrigation for 24 hours and then call again, “he explains.
From germination to planting in the field, the process lasts three months. According to Poliana, it is half the time the market takes (six months). Another difference is that the plants go to the planting already adapted to the reality of the state: smaller and thicker. “We have the wind issue very strong. They tend to fall less, “he says.
To boost the business, the recreational farm developed a system of partnership with landowners in the region, passing 20% of the wood to the landowner. “This means, in a thousand hectares of planted mahogany, a return of almost R $ 140 million,” says Guimarães.
Access the news on the website that published it (in Portuguese): https://canalrural.uol.com.br/programas/informacao/rural-noticias/veja-como-a-tecnologia-ajuda-uma-fazenda-a-produzir-mogno-africano/
