SC South America and Summit Agro Continue Tradition of High Quality Agro Products

When Sumitomo Corporation increased its 65% stake in Agro Amazônia last year to become a wholly owned subsidiary, it marked a new age of growth for the company. Already one of central and western Brazil’s largest distributors of agricultural supplies and in a market that continues to expand, Agro Amazônia is a success story that looks to grow as much as the agriculture it helps to flourish.

“After Agro Amazônia became a subsidiary of Sumitomo Corporation, the company has continued to grow significantly,” Agro Amazônia President and CEO Roberto Motta said. “We have been able to double revenues and improve the quality of our business. Sumitomo contributes a lot to capital, management, controls, compliance, risk management, marketing and other areas.”

Established in 1983, Agro Amazônia has long served as a distributor of agricultural and livestock “inputs,” with 80% of the business in the Agricultural segment, and 20% of the business in the livestock segment. On the agricultural side, agrochemicals, seeds, fertilizers, plant nutrition and services comprise that majority product offering, while pasture-centered agrochemicals, seeds and fertilizers, along with veterinary products/vaccines, wires, animal nutrition and equipment make up the remainder.

With 486 employees and 32 branches in the Brazilian states of Mato Grosso, Rondônia, Pará, Tocantins, Goiás and Mato Grosso do Sul, Agro Amazônia’s mission is to support the sustainable development of agribusiness. Motta attributes the success to focusing on sustainability, integrity, passion, customer focus and safety, all in pursuit of the company’s goal to become the best and biggest agribusiness inputs distributor in all of Brazil.

“The greatest strength of Agro Amazônia is the people who offer special care and high-quality products and services to the farmer,” Motta stated. ‘We work for the success of our customer. Our clients’ business success is our success. We are even recognized as the best technical team in the market.”

Having said that, Motta admitted that even with all their success, there is always room for improvement.

“We need to train and motivate our team more and more, obviously with corporate governance and well-defined processes. We are looking for tools from agritech, precision agriculture and livestock, digital farming, management systems and other products to deliver innovative and differentiated services that can help our customer reduce production cost, increase productivity and manage their business well.” The greatest product growth areas of Agro Amazônia involve the sale of seeds and fertilizers. Between the company’s top-notch technical team and SC’s capital, the marketing is robust enough to take the lead at the fiercest levels of competition. Motta said that Agro Amazônia looks to introduce new premier products in these areas very soon, those he believes will assist in productivity. He also said that SC, SCOA and SC Brazil’s integrated corporate strength is a key factor in their success.

“This strength contributed greatly to the success of Agro Amazônia,” Motta said. “SC and SCOA’s business people regularly visit us and even our customers, seeking to understand our business and know our customers’ needs, values and issues, as well as identifying opportunities. This also helps us to improve our management, and with that, we can define strategies and actions to achieve our vision.”

Motta’s team received the President’s Innovation Award at this year’s Americas Leadership Conference for a project involving staff and agritechnology tools for agricultural production at Fazenda Lagoa Dourada, a loyal customer that plants soybean in the Mato Grosso region. One of the tools used was agricultural integration/livestock integration to increase profitability and optimize land use by rotating between soybean and pasture, with the intent of improving soil quality and preserving the environment. Additionally, digital farm tools, precision farming and farm profitability management help the company seek sustainability for clients by reducing production costs, increasing productivity, improving business management, increasing business profitability and preserving the environment. The results were dramatic.

“In just five years,” Motta said, “Agro Amazônia’s process increased the farm yield from 42 bags of soybean per hectare to 80 bags, and similarly, the 1.2 head of cattle per hectare increased to six.”

Motta said that the award meant true recognition for the team’s commitment to the use of innovative and differentiated technologies in the pursuit of their client’s satisfaction, loyalty and success.

“All of this was achieved thanks to the excellent relationship with customers and the great work of our team,” Motta said. “We are very pleased, happy and proud with this achievement. This shows us that we are on the right path. We want to improve the quality of attention and services for our customers. We will continue looking for new technologies, new tools and training our team to increasingly help the farmer to produce food in a sustainable way.”

Motta proudly reiterated that although this award means a lot to his team, this is just the beginning, and they are looking to the future.

“Agro Amazônia has sixteen strategies to achieve our five year plan and our vision – which is to become the best and biggest agribusiness inputs distributor in Brazil – but we have defined three priority strategies: to maximize our sales in the commercial area with excellent customer service, to expand our commercial area by increasing branches and acquiring local distributors, and to establish a seed business platform.”

With a long-running record of quality and service, along with award-winning programs that provide plans on how to increase their efficiency and growth, it would seem that Agro Amazônia will see a harvest of success for many years to come.

Left to right: Agro Amazônia CEO Roberto Motta receives the President’s Innovation Award from SCOA President & CEO & GM for the Americas Mark Nakajima at the SC Americas Leadership Conference.