With investment of 150 million Brazilian reals (BRR; US$ 76 million), food manufacturing company Bunge Alimentos inaugurated a soy processing factory in the municipality of Nova Mutum, state of Mato Grosso, last week, reports Brazil-Arab News Agency. The plant will produce oil and soybean meal for the domestic and foreign markets. Built in 14 months, the unit has a built area of 34,000 square metres, is located in a 200-hectare plot, and should generate 100 direct jobs, as well as hundreds of indirect ones.

The unit has a storage capacity that allows for the processing of 1.3 million tonnes a year, and a silo for storing 100,000 tonnes of grain. This will be Bunge's second largest factory, the ninth in soy processing volume, and the 28th unit owned by the company in the state of Mato Grosso.

"Bunge Alimentos was, and still is, a pioneering company in encouraging Brazilian agribusiness. With this investment, we are going to add value to the state's leading raw material, soy, by processing the grain," says Sérgio Waldrich, president of Bunge, in a release issued by the press office of the company.

"We have created direct and indirect job positions, thus helping to increase the economic turnover of the in the interior of Brazil even further. Our contribution to the development of Nova Mutum will be done in a sustainable manner, combining economic activities, environmental care, and social development," says Mr Waldrich.

The new unit features fully automated systems, state-of-the-art equipment and modern concepts in automation. The factory's operation meets all of the criteria for respecting the community, the flora and the fauna of the region. One of the differentials of the new unit is the fact that all liquid effluents will be treated inside the unit itself.

Atmospheric emissions are also controlled, thus ensuring that emissions will remain way below the limits set by environment-related organisations. Bunge has also set aside an area of 70 hectares, in which an environmental reserve will be implemented, similar to the ones that the company maintains in the states of Santa Catarina and São Paulo.