On the third and last day of her official visit to the Federative Republic of Brazil, Foreign Minister Mondino had a busy agenda in São Paulo, which included meetings with high-level representatives from the business, financial and banking sectors.
First, the Foreign Minister was received at the headquarters of Cosan Raizen Group by its president, Rubens Ometto Silveira Mello; the manager of Raizen, Ricardo Mussa; and the head of Raizen Argentina, Teófilo Lacroze.
Cosan Raizen Group is a leader in Brazil’s sugar, ethanol and bioenergy production sector. The Group commenced activities in Argentina in 2018, when it acquired Shell’s downstream operations. Currently, its assets in Argentina include a refinery in Dock Sud, a lubricants plant in Barrancas and a network of 735 service stations, some of which dispense fuel oil for maritime and air transport.
During the one-hour-plus meeting, the Foreign Minister highlighted the Group’s operations in Argentina and exchanged ideas with its top executives on the plans to increase investments in our country, whose energy sector offers great opportunities. For his part, Rubens Ometto expressed the Group’s growing interest in making Argentina and Brazil leaders of the global biofuel market. In this regard, he confirmed a USD 600 million investment in the next four years to modernize its refinery in Dock Sud.
Then, the Foreign Minister held a luncheon with executives from XP Investimentos and representatives from venture capital firms and local companies, with whom she discussed the economic reforms promoted by President Milei’s Administration to advance free enterprise and create a new business environment in Argentina.
XP Investimentos is the largest Brazilian supplier of financial services focused on investments. It is listed on the NasdaqGS index and its market capitalization amounts to USD 13.047 billion. The company’s CEO, Guilherme Benchimol, and the shareholder and Institutional Director, Rafael Furlanetti, attended the luncheon.
Attendants also included Fernando Simões, president of SIMPAR, a logistics services supplier that controls JSL, Movida and Vamos; and Benjamin Steinbruch, director general of Vicunha, the holding company that owns the largest textile industry in Latin America and Compañía Siderúrgica Nacional (CSN). Since 2011, Vicunha has run a spinning mill in the Province of San Juan and, last year, he announced an investment of USD 6 million to increase its productive capacity. The modernized plant will start operating during the first half of 2024.
Foreign Minister Mondino’s third activity of the day involved a trip to the historic centre of São Paulo to hold a working meeting with the president of the Confederation of Commercial and Business Associations of Brazil (CACB), Alfredo Cotait Neto; the president of the Commercial Association of São Paulo (ACSP), Roberto Mateus Ordine; and many representatives from foreign trade entities of São Paulo.
The CACB is the largest multi-sector organization in Brazil. It represents the interests of 27 federations, 2,300 commercial and business associations, and 2 million companies in Brazil before government authorities and other public and private entities.
In this context, Ambassador Marcelo Cima, Secretary for International Economic Relations of the Foreign Ministry, confirmed Argentina’s participation in the first Argentina-Brazil Joint Trade Mission to Cairo, from 23 to 27 June 2024. This mission will focus on the food, beverages, equipment, parts and pieces, textile and footwear, and personal hygiene sectors, among others. In this regard, the Foreign Minister stated “there is no small product or small business, each market that is opened improves the lives of a group of families.”
Finally, Foreign Minister Mondino met with prominent Brazilian bankers and economists, such as João Doria, former governor of the State of São Paulo; Henrique Meirelles, former Minister of Finance of Brazil and president of the Central Bank of Brazil (BCB); and Ana Paula Vescovi, former Secretary of Treasury and Finance of the State of São Paulo.
During her stay in the capital of São Paulo, Foreign Minister Mondino was accompanied by the Secretary for International Economic Relations, Ambassador Marcelo Cima, and the Consul General and Director of the Argentine Promotion Centre, Ambassador Luis María Kreckler.
