Lula signs decree to boost biobusiness in the Amazon

For the vice-president and minister of Development, Industry, Commerce and Services, Geraldo Alckmin, the broader role of the CBA will result in investments, products, jobs, income and local and regional development. During the signing ceremony for the decree at the Planalto Palace, Alckmin highlighted the potential of the Amazon’s biodiversity in areas such as pharmaceuticals, chemistry, cosmetics and food.

“We are going to work together with the ministries of science and technology, the environment, state governments, municipal governments, universities and, mainly, the private sector to create jobs, create companies, add value, transform the great pharmacy that is the Amazonian biodiversity into products, services, jobs and investments. It is impressive, in the area of ​​food, for example, 1 kilo of almond cocoa costs R$ 10 and 1 kilo of chocolate, R$ 200. We have a lot of potential, ”he said.

With the decree, the CBA, formerly called the Amazon Biotechnology Center, is no longer linked to the Manaus Free Trade Zone Superintendence (Suframa) and is now managed by the social organization Fundação Universitas de Estudos Amazônicos (FUEA), selected through a public competition. With its own legal personality, the center will have more autonomy to raise public and private resources and expand its activities.

According to the Presidency of the Republic, the public resources foreseen for the CBA in the next four years reach R$ 47.6 million. Now, it will also be possible to have access to resources available in the private sector for research, development and innovation.

“It (CBA) will have an intelligence center for new businesses, which will prospect new investments, bring in the private sector and transform research into patents and businesses for the development of the region”, highlighted Alckmin.

In the coming days, FUEA will sign a contract with the Ministry of Development, Industry, Commerce and Services, which will transfer the management of the CBA to the social organization, which will work in partnership with the Institute of Technological Research, the Foundation for Supporting the Research Institute Technologies and the University of the State of Amazonas.

Performance

The CBA will now have a business center operating on two fronts. The first will be in the search for research outside its own laboratories, which will result in “off-the-shelf” products that integrate the center’s portfolio and will be offered to potential investors.

On the second front, in partnerships with the private sector, the center will guarantee the supply of raw materials regularly and at competitive prices, providing minimum conditions for the industry to establish itself and for there to be sustainability in the work of the communities directly involved, such as riverside people and indigenous peoples. originating.

The CBA was created in 2003, within Suframa. According to the Presidency of the Republic, over the last few years, the center has been working on projects that seek to develop new products and processes using inputs from the Amazonian biodiversity in several areas, such as food and beverages, herbal medicines, cosmetics, pharmaceuticals, chemistry, bioplastics , agricultural, textile, health, diagnostic and paper.

The center also acts in the training of human resources for the development of sustainable base activities, through technical support to traditional communities, management units, agroforestry entrepreneurs; and for transforming organic and inorganic waste into economically viable products.

Among the practical examples of CBA activities are the development of catalysts from sludge for the production of biofuels; the use of local inputs and factory residues to obtain bioplastics, cellulose and bacterial membranes that can even be transformed into probiotic drinks, such as kombucha; advanced processes for obtaining freeze-dried açaí, cupuaçu butter and essential oils from orange peel; and production of natural dyes from more than 2,600 species of microorganisms in the region.