June 25, 2019

The forestry sector “has continued its growth” and last year “we were in first place for exports in the country,” which “gave us more visibility than we already had,” the president of the Uruguayan Forestry Producers Society (SPF), Agricultural Engineer Carlos Faroppa, told Forestal magazine.

Interviewed by María José Fermi for the official publication of the trade association, he stated that «the sector is ready to grow more.»

Faroppa – who completed specialized studies in Sweden, Italy, Finland and Peru – has advised, designed, executed and directed projects for planting, replanting, harvesting and forest management for Uruguayan and multinational companies and organizations.

Cellulose and solid wood

“Basically, we have two production chains (in the sector): the cellulose and the solid wood chain,” said Faroppa, an agronomist with a forestry orientation who graduated from the Faculty of Agronomy (FAGRO) of the University of the Republic (UdelaR).

Regarding the pulp industry, he said that «it is well set up and works very well throughout the chain in terms of regulations, prices, labor and industrial capacities, and it has the potential to grow.»

Regarding the solid wood supply chain, he stated in Forestal magazine that “it is the sawmill and board sector, where we still have quite a few challenges to face. We have a greater supply of wood than we can industrialize, and that is why we export wood in logs.”

Converting waste into raw materials

Agricultural Engineer Carlos Faroppa stated that «the challenge lies in taking a further step towards the bioeconomy and a circular forest economy, taking advantage of everything related to secondary forest products.»

He cited as an example «chips, sawdust or bark», products that «we should give value to in the energy generation or biofuel industry».

“It is about the transformation of what is waste” into “a product with value as raw material for other production,” he explained.

Definitions

In a study published by ECLAC (Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean), the bioeconomy is defined and characterized as follows:

“a) an economy based on the consumption and production of goods and services derived from the direct use and sustainable transformation of biological resources, including biomass waste generated in the processes of transformation, production and consumption;

 

1. b) leveraging knowledge of systems, principles and processes, and
2. c) technologies applicable to the knowledge and transformation of biological resources and to the emulation of biological processes and principles.”

The document – ​​entitled “Bioeconomy in Latin America and the Caribbean. Global and regional context, and perspectives” – mentions “three examples of biological resources that can serve as a basis for the development of national and regional bioeconomy strategies: biodiversity (including agrobiodiversity), especially in megadiverse countries and with unique ecosystems; the capacity to produce biomass for diverse uses, in addition to food; and the availability of agricultural and agro-industrial waste.

In Uruguay, the government has defined the bioeconomy as “key to productive development” and has indicated that it “seeks to enhance the country’s forest resources in order to take advantage of the opportunities in the sector, diversifying products and promoting local development” (in a booklet published by the Planning and Budget Office –OPP–, series “The future in development”, Year 4, No. 10, August 2018).

For its part, the central concept of the circular economy is “produce-use-reuse”, in opposition to the currently predominant paradigm: “produce-use-discard”.

Based on this premise, the BioValor Project operates in our country, coordinated and implemented by the Ministries of Industry, Energy and Mining (through the National Directorate of Energy); Housing, Territorial Planning and Environment (through the National Directorate of Environment); and Livestock, Agriculture and Fisheries.

“Generating value with agro-industrial waste” is the central slogan of BioValor and its objective is “to inspire, energize and activate the community to drive the transition to a Circular Economy in Uruguay and the region”, integrating the work between the government, academia and “key actors”, as stated on the Project’s website (http://biovalor.gub.uy/).