By Daren Coppock, ARA President & CEO
In early May, I had the privilege of representing ARA in two international meetings – the BioAg Global conference in Brazil and Congreso de Distribuidores del Agro (CDA) in Argentina. It’s always instructive to share information with international peers, and we’re dedicating a session at this year’s ARA Conference & Expo to that topic.
Ag Retail Insights from Brazil
The BioAg Global meeting is a gathering of companies and investors in the biological product space. Host nation Brazil is the fastest-growing market for ag biologicals in the world with a growth rate of 28 percent compared to 10 percent in the USA and the global average. Established players and startups from all corners of the world comprised a crowd of about 600 people.
I participated in a panel discussion with two academics, one private company agronomist and two farmers – one from southern Brazil and one from Mozambique – to address the topic of getting farmers interested in biologicals. Some of these products have trickier handling, storage and application requirements than conventional pesticides or fertilizers do.
The main point I made in the panel – with strong support from both farmers – is that the farmers don’t have time or expertise to evaluate all of the biological product options available. Farmers must rely on advice and support of an ag retailer to take care of those challenges, pointing to a recently released study on farmers’ perceptions on biologicals.
In fact, the survey asked farmer respondents if they trusted their agronomist or Certified Crop Adviser (CCA) provided by their ag retail partner, and 88 percent answered “yes.”
Argentina’s Inaugural Ag Distribution Meeting
The CDA meeting in Buenos Aires was the first gathering of the agricultural and distribution channel in Argentina ever, and 1,400 people showed up for this inaugural meeting. Sessions and receptions were mostly standing room only and the audience cheered enthusiastically when the dates for the 2024 event were announced.
Topics on the agenda were familiar:
- trends toward the industry’s future;
- logistics and the last mile;
- new business models and partnerships; and
- a company CEO panel.
Argentina is a beautiful country with great people, vibrant culture, awesome food, resourceful businesses, and a completely incompetent government that makes their lives more difficult at every turn. Companies can’t access dollars they need to import goods due to strict currency controls. The government taxes exported soybeans at over 30 percent. Inflation is running at 100 percent. The biggest currency bill is a 1,000 peso note and a combo meal at Burger King costs 3,500-5,000 pesos; so, you either must use a credit card or carry a huge wad of rapidly depreciating cash to make purchases. Some stores have gone to quoting prices in US dollars to avoid changing their peso prices; they just do the math at point of sale to calculate the price in pesos.
All of this is on top of the challenges all retailers and distributors faced with supply chain challenges in the last two years. This ag community takes resiliency to a whole new level.
International Insights at ARA Conference
Representatives from global ag retailer peers in Brazil, Argentina and Canada will attend this year’s ARA Conference & Expo and will be speaking in the closing session on Thursday, Nov. 30. They are wonderful people and have become great friends of mine.
The panelists will share their stories operating in somewhat different political environments and languages than we do, but many of the challenges and solutions are the same. We have an opportunity to learn from and collaborate with each other for mutual benefit. I encourage ARA members to seek them out at the ARA Conference in Orlando, share a meal or a beverage, and get to know them better. You can take the first step in that process by registering for the conference at www.aradc.org/conference.
