Brazil's Sadia Food Co Gets UN Carbon Credit Certified
SAO PAULO -(Dow Jones)- Brazilian food company Sadia said Thursday that it has
been accepted to be a part of the United Nations' Clean Development Mechanism
project, which will allow the company to sell carbon credits next year.
"We are very interested in entering this market and are now starting to
account for, and accumulate carbon credits to sell next year," said Sadia CEO
Jose Julio Cardoso de Lucena.
Sadia's four-year-old hog farm program called 3S qualified for the UN project,
which are the only projects that form part of the international carbon trading
system set in motion by the Kyoto Protocol to reduce carbon emissions in to the
atmosphere. Polluting industries can buy carbon credits from nonpolluting
companies on the open market on exchanges like the Chicago and European Climate
Exchange.
Sadia carbon credits will are UN Certified Emission Reduction tradable
credits, the first for a Brazilian food company.
CEO Lucena did not say just how much the company expects to generate in
revenue from carbon trading.
Sadia is a subsidiary of Perdigao (PDA). The two companies merged this year to
form BRF Brasil Foods, but the deal has not yet been approved by the Brazilian
anti-trust department.
Hog farming is a larger contributor to methane gas into the atmosphere. Sadia
invested around 60 million Brazilian reals ($34.3 million) in biodigestor
equipment to treat animal waste and turn it into fertilizer or energy, reducing
carbon emissions by as much as 21 times.
Around one-third of the Sadia's 3,500 contract farmers are currently part of
the 3S program. The number is expected to eventually incorporate the majority of
Sadia outsourced and owned hog farms, as well as Perdigao partner farms once the
two companies are completely integrated, Lucena said.
BRF Brasil Foods is Brazil's leading chicken exporter and owners of the two
top selling food brands in Brazil.
-By Kenneth Rapoza, Dow Jones Newswires, 5511-2847-4541, kenneth.rapoza@
dowjones.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
11-26-091524ET
Copyright (c) 2009 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
|