Brazil - Results of the Dairy Mission, November 2019
The Dutch Embassy in Brasília took the initiative to organise a one week Dairy Mission to the Brazilian state of Paraná to explore the potential for collaboration between Brazil and Dutch dairy sectors.
Collaboration on research and development that would facilitate the further development of the Brazilian dairy sector in general and the dairy cluster in the Castro area in particular was the main objective of this mission. This is why two researchers from Wageningen University and Research were asked to execute the mission. They visited dairy farmers, dairy extention workers and board members of the cooperatives in Castrolanda, Carambeí and Arapoti. Next to that visits were made to the umbrella organisation of cooperatives in Paraná (OCEPAR) and the State Ministry of Agriculture of Paraná to get informed about the present state and the foreseen developments of the dairy sector in this state. They also explored the interests of Dutch companies to collaborate with stakeholders in the Brazilian dairy sector.
The final results of the one week mission are a draft research agenda and intentions to extend this to a partnerschip in the future. The next steps in this process will depend on the approval of members with dairy farms of the three cooperatives. Based on the discussions held during the mission week, the dairy sector would focus on research on environment and sustainability, dairy education and training on various levels, IT to better support decisions about herd management and crop cultivation and options to come to better research facilities for the dairy sector. Various Dutch companies have shown interest to collaborate on the development and execution of this research agenda. All stakeholders consider that the involvement and participation of the companies in a dairy research programme will enhance the success of the programme in Brazil.
Information & contact
For more information please contact:
Bert Rikken, agricultural counselor of Embassy Kingdom of the Netherlands in Brazil
e-mail: Bert.Rikken@minbuza.nl
Jelle Zijlstra, project manager Dairy Mission Brazil fo Wageningen University & Research
e-mail: Jelle.Zijlstra@wur.nl
