Brazil: The palm oil that comes from Pará

addition to producing on its own 1,500 hectares and the 2,500 hectares of partner farms, it will also take in the harvest from 150 hectares of small properties. Denpasa’s director, Roberto Yokoyama, says the company was the first to plant palm in Pará. The company’s operations began in the 1970s with the cultivation of African-origin varieties, which were eventually wiped out by disease, causing losses. The activity gained new momentum years later, when a hybrid was developed by crossing African and Brazilian species that were resistant to the disease. The discovery was followed by ten years of research and development focused on cloning hybrid varieties. “Starting in 2019, we began producing genetically enhanced plants with higher yield potential, and now we have a laboratory capable of producing around 500,000 cloned seedlings per year,” says Yokoyama. With these selections, some of Denpasa’s plants can produce eight to ten tons of oil per hectare, compared to the usual average ...