- BSBios
BSBios acquires biodiesel plant, soybean-crush facility in Paraguay
BSBios has acquired the La Paloma Industrial Complex, a company located in La Paloma del Espíritu Santo, in the Department of Canindeyú, Paraguay.
The contract was signed Jan. 5 by Erasmo Carlos Battistella, president of BSBios, and La Paloma partners Darci Ricardi, Massimiliano Corsi and Sidney Wedderhoff.
The complex has the capacity to produce 7 million liters (1.85 million gallons) of biodiesel per year, based on vegetable oils, and will have the capacity to crush 50,000 tons of soybeans per year, producing some 38,000 tons of soybean meal, soybean hulls, and vegetable oil.
The unit also has storage capacity for soybeans and soybean bran, which will enable the company to carry out tranding (a type of investment in the financial market) of other grains. Local employees will be retained at the unit, which has a total area of 15.3 hectares.
The plant is located in the Department of Canindeyú, which is Paraguay's third-largest soybean producer, with some 680,000 hectares of land. Its urban center is located just 5 kilometers (km) from the district of Francisco Álvarez, approximately 195 km from Ciudad del Este and 35 km from Salto del Guairá.
The acquisition reaffirms the company’s position to diversify investments, internationalize the company and advance in raw materials and renewable energies, reinforcing its commitment to Paraguay’s sustainable development and to meet the growing demand for biodiesel in the region.
BSBios is already developing its business relationships in Paraguay through the Omega Green advanced biofuels biorefinery investment project and will now have the soybean crushing and biodiesel production unit, to be called BSBios La Paloma.
“We are proud to take this step forward,” Battistella said. “This operation reinforces our belief in the potential of Paraguay, where we are investing with the intention of expanding our international operations. With BSBios La Paloma, we will have the opportunity to source our own raw materials in an integrated manner with producers in the region, in addition to advancing in the certification of suppliers to consolidate an increasingly sustainable operation throughout the chain.”
Battistella also emphasized that the region allows the operation to grow in the coming years.
“It is with this vision of growth, continuous investments and generation of employment and income for the communities that we are reaching Canindeyú, as we have done in all the regions where we operate,” he said.
Corsi added, “We are very pleased with the acquisition. This step is a very important milestone in favor of the productive community of Canindeyú and will give renewed strength to the national industry.”
Inaugurated in 2018, the La Paloma Agroindustrial Complex is the result of an investment made jointly by Ricardi, a Paraguayan soybean producer, and Corsi, an Italian investor.
BSBios is a Brazilian agribusiness and renewable energy company founded in 2005. In addition to two production units in Brazil, one in Passo Fundo (Rio Grande do Sul) and the other in Marialva (Paraná), the group also has a production unit in Switzerland and is carrying out the construction project of the Omega Green biorefinery in Paraguay, which will produce renewable diesel, sustainable aviation fuel and green naphtha.
The company has also recently announced investment in the first large-scale ethanol plant in Rio Grande do Sul. When fully installed, the new unit located in Passo Fundo will produce 220 million liters (58 million gallons) of anhydrous or hydrated ethanol and 155 million tons of bran per year for the animal-protein chain.
“In Paraguay, and in other countries in the region, we advocate for an increase in the biodiesel blend, mainly because of the environmental agenda and decarbonization goals,” Battistella said. “We will do this through associations and together with other biodiesel producers in Paraguay. The manifesto* recently disseminated by several entities in the continent in defense of biofuels proposes that similar public policies be adopted in the region. We advocate that Paraguay follow the best practices adopted, as is the case of the biodiesel blending mandates in Brazil.”
*Access the manifesto here:
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