Collaboration for Innovation in the Brazilian Soybean Market

• Autore: Raphaela Ladeia
• Carica: Brazilian Lawyer; LL.M., Columbia Law School 2016; recipient, Parker School Certificate in International and Comparative Law
• Pagine: 309-341

ARTICLES & ESSAYS

DOI 10.6092/issn.2531-6133/6812

UNIVERSITY OF BOLOGNA LAW REVIEW

ISSN 2531-6133

[VOL.1:2 2016]

This article is released under the terms of Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License

309

Collaboration for Innovation in the Brazilian Soybean Market

RAPHAELA MACIEL LADEIA

TABLE OF CONTENTS: 1. Introduction; 2. The Brazilian Soybean History and Relevance; 3.

The Evolution of the Agricultural Sector in Brazil; 3.1. The Evolution of the Soybean

Research in Brazil; 3.2. The Applicable Brazilian Legislation; 4. Embrapa; 4.1. The Main

Similarities Between the Argentinian National Institute of Agricultural Technology 

INTA and Embrapa; 4.2. Embrapa Public Private Agreements; 5. Governance; 5.1.

Governance in the Local Soybean Production Arrangement; 6. Conclusion.

ABSTRACT: The establishment of strategic collaborative partnerships is of great value to

innovate under uncertainty. The agricultural sector could not be different. Brazil has

one of the most complete and complex agricultural research structures in the world and

this article focus on the Brazilian soybean, considering its economical relevance. In this

context, this article explains the Brazilian Agricultural Research Corporation

(hereinafter Embrapa) central role in articulating networks to develop soybean with

efficiency gains and overcoming market uncertainties.

KEYWORDS: Collaboration; Innovation; Uncertainty; Brazilian Soybean Research.

University of Bologna Law Review

[Vol.1:2 2016]

DOI 10.6092/issn.2531-6133/6812

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1. INTRODUCTION

Brazil has one of the most complex and complete agricultural research

structures. The Brazilian Agricultural Research Corporation (hereinafter

Embrapa) plays a central role collaborating with the several actors who

contribute to that research.

Considering the broad range of agricultural cultivars in Brazil and the

different ways the actors who develop, produce and commercialize them

interact, it was necessary to delimit the study to one specific cultivar. Hence,

we chose the soybean because of its relevance to the Brazilian economy.

The main purpose of this paper is to explain the collaborative structures

.

1

As

explained by Professor Charles F. Sabel

2

, contracts are mechanisms employed

to enable communication and avoid opportunistic behaviors among the actors.

Moreover, rules are necessary to decrease or mitigate the undesired behaviors.

Therefore, this paper analyzes the agreements and legislation in these

collaborative structures.

This paper proceeds in four parts. The first part explains the history and

the relevance of the soybean in the Brazilian context. The second part analyzes

the evolution of the agricultural sector in Brazil, including the evolution of

soybean research and the applicable legislation. The third part then explains

what Embrapa is, showing its main features. It also compares the Brazilian

Embrapa and the Argentinian INTA     

fourth part focuses on governance and specifically, about the local soybean

production arrangement in Santarém and Belterra. In conclusion, the main

        

partners are highlighted.

 Brazilian Lawyer; LL.M., Columbia Law School 2016; recipient, Parker School Certificate in

International and Comparative Law.

1

In this paper uncertainty refers to the knightian concept FRANK HYNEMAN KNIGHT, RISK,

UNCERTAINTY AND PROFIT (1921), explained by Ronald J. Gilson, Charles Fredrick Sabel & Robert E.

Scott, Contracting for innovation: Vertical disintegration and interfirm collaboration, 109 COLUM. L. REV.

431 (2009). According to them, uncertainty differs from risk because of its impossibility to

quantify the probability of occurrence. Uncertainty also differs from asymmetry (one party detains

the information).

2

Charles F. Sabel is the Maurice T. Moore Professor of Law and Social Science at Columbia Law

School.

University of Bologna Law Review

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DOI 10.6092/issn.2531-6133/6812

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2. THE BRAZILIAN SOYBEAN HISTORY AND RELEVANCE

According to Bonato and Bonato, the soybean is a species of legume of the pea

family whose main products are grain, oil and bran. Its ancient history is

unclear.

3

The Chinese literature states that it was domesticated hundreds of

years before the first records dated 2838 B.C. in Pen-tsao Kang-mu herbarium.

Based on this, it is believed that the soybean is one of the oldest types of

cultivars on earth. However, the soybean evolved over time because of the

natural and artificial crossing of different species.

Despite the disagreement in research on the origin of the soybean, it is

certain that its origin is in East Asia. Between the 2nd century B.C. and 3rd

century A.D., the soybean was brought to Korea and Japan. In 1790, England

planted soybeans in the royal botanic garden in Kew. Later, the Professor of

Vienna University Friedrich Hamberlandt, distributed soybean seeds to Austria,

Germany, Poland, Hungary, Switzerland and the Netherlands. The soybean

came to the United States in 1840, but only in 1980 did American producers get

commercially interested in it. In Latin America, it was introduced in Brazil in

1882, in Argentina in 1909, in 1921 in Paraguay and in 1928 in Colombia.

Until the beginning of the 1940s, the production of soybean was

concentrated in Asia. Production in the West, especially in the United States,

started growing in 1940 and in 1942 it was the first ranked country in world

production.

The São Paulo Agronomic Institute did the first studies about soybean in

Brazil in 1892, which were published in 1899. In order to encourage soybean

cultivation in Brazil, the Department of Agriculture of São Paulo distributed

soybean seeds to farmers in 1900. The first Brazilian state to produce soybeans

on a commercial scale was Rio Grande do Sul in 1901. Paraná held the title of

the biggest producer of soybean in Brazil for many years, until the production

in Mato Grosso surpassed it. Other Brazilian states, such as Minas Gerais,

Santa Catarina, Bahia, Goiás, Distrito Federal and Maranhão also produce

soybeans, despite not being relevant for commercial production.

3

See generally EMIDIO RIZZO BONATO & ANA LIDIA VARIANI BONATO, A SOJA NO BRASIL: HISTORIA E

ESTATISTICA [SOYBEAN IN BRAZIL: HISTORY AND STATISTIC] (1987).