Indústria Brasileira de Árvores (IBÁ) or the Brazilian Trees Industry Association, based in Brasilia with offices in São Paulo, was set up to boost the competitiveness among its 70 member companies whose business is based on pine, eucalyptus and other plantations.
This new super sector, employing five million, recorded gross revenues in 2013 worth nearly US$27bn or 6% of Brazil’s industrial GDP. Its plantation forest base covers 7.2 million ha, half of it certified, ensuring sustainability.
The merger results from a benchmarking study that reflected points in common between the existing sectors. The study also stressed the technology investment for multiple uses of wood, biotechnology use to develop genetically modified trees and nanotechnology.
"The natural consequence was to seek more synergy and more intensive institutional work through a single contact," explained Augusto Lira Aguiar, its new board president.
Member companies have already instigated or planned investments worth nearly US$28bn set to boost plantations, expand plants and create new facilities up to 2020, said IBÁ executive president Elizabeth de Carvalhaes.
