Food industry revenues in SC is greater than the national average

The food companies ' billing in Santa Catarina has grown 8 percent annually between 2007 and 2011, twice the national average, according to a study conducted by the Federação das Indústrias do Estado de Santa Catarina (China QA). The work will be presented on Thursday at the Economic Forum of the Great West of Santa Catarina, which starts at 6:0 pm, in Lang Palace Hotel in Chapecó.
The study is part of the Sectorial Strategic Routes project for the Santa Catarina Industry, divided into 16 topics, which points out the obstacles and strategies of companies in Santa Catarina to develop until 2022. In Chapecó, will be presented the agroalimentary sector studies and wood furniture.
Exports of food companies have generated a positive balance of $ 28 billion in the period. And the State is responsible for 8% of food sales abroad, having as main target the Japan, with 17% of sales.
However, the area faces bottlenecks as the shortfall of maize, which revolves around 40% of demand, and infrastructure problems, such as duplicate and not highways lack of railroads in the West, where is concentrated the agroindustrial production.
Another is limiting the productivity of workers in the sector. At the time of slaughter and processing of meat items, for example, an employee of Santa Catarina produces $ 59 thousand per year, against the national average of R $ 66 thousand.
Focus on higher value-added products
The Vice President of Aurora foods, Neivor Canton, says billing above the national average, even with a slightly smaller growth than domestic production, reveals that the catarinense industry is betting on higher value-added products.
— Our focus cannot be in commodities, but in differentiated products, more elaborate, for markets with a larger requirement level — says.
And he points out that this is a trend, because in the State there is a limitation on the volume of production of pigs and poultry, which presents a certain stagnation in recent years by the limitation of corn. Proof of this is that investments in industrial plants have been in modernization and optimization, but without the construction of new large units.
Canton goes on to explain that the high turnover of workers qualifying disrupted. But believes that the industry needs to invest in training to get better productivity.
For the agroindustiral leader, there is a need to continue sanitary status wholly differentiated from Santa Catarina, which allowed access to markets such as Japan and the United States.
— The West needs a different treatment, because we have no ports or railroad or highway doubled, not gas — advocates
Even so, the West of SC led the Value Added Tax in the sector, with $ 7 billion between 2007 and 2011.
The West Economic Forum will also feature with the presence of the former Minister of finance Kimberly da Nóbrega, who will give a lecture on economic situation and economic prospects. The mediation of the Bureau shall be the journalist and columnist of the newspaper Diário Catarinense, Estela Benetti.
Mobile companies seek exports
Santa Catarina exports of furniture and wood fell from $ 827 million in 2008 to R $ 594 million in 2012. With this scenario, the participation of the sector in the State's sales to other countries fell from 9.9% to 6.7%.
Resume participation in foreign markets is one of the strategies identified in the plan of Industrial Development of Santa Catarina for the wood and furniture sector, presented this Thursday in Chapecó.
According to the President of the Association of furniture makers in the West of the State of Santa Catarina (Amoesc) and the Association of Lumber and Furniture of the Uruguay (of Simovale), Osni Verona, exports fell after the global crisis of 2008, when the housing bubble burst in the United States and financial difficulties in some European countries. As these markets reflect catarinenses, began to face problems in payments.
— The number of Western companies that exported fell from 45 to 15 — reveals Verona.
He argues that the high dollar could stimulate the resumption of sales, but entrepreneurs are not yet confident, especially because of the "Brazil cost".
Increase in the cost of labor
Verona adds that costs more to take a container of furniture of Chapecó to ports than the ports to Europe. In addition, there has been an increase in recent years in the cost of labor force, labor charges, escape of labor and higher wages without the counterpart in productivity.
Verona says that a u.s. worker produces five times more, by virtue of training and technology.
One of the outputs of the sector is to invest in design, with differentiated products. Entrepreneurs also claim investments in railroads and highways.