Recent spur in expansion Although the cooperative has been in existence for 55 years, the cooperative Lar has recently been gearing up extensively in the south of Brazil. Varnier’s plant was founded with one feed production line in 2002, and expanded over the years to have four in 2016. All feed production lines were constructed in cooperation with Netherlands-based feed mill constructor


Van Aarsen and their Brazilian distributor Schneider. Lar chose to cooperate with Van Aarsen because of the robust advanced feed production lines and good technical service. Varnier has been working for 14 years for the cooperative and has been a manager for the Santa Helena plant for just under two years. There will be more expansion to come for the feed plant, he says. Outside the plant, at the time of the visit,


Lar cooperative: Much more than only poultry


‘Lar’ is a Portuguese word, meaning ‘home’ or ‘my place’. The cooperative Lar is one of the many existing in Brazil, as a large part of the country’s agriculture revolves around cooper- atives. Lar cooperative, headquartered in Medianeira, Paraná, consists of 11,000 mem- bers and has roughly 13,000 employees. The cooperative covers the entire production chain, from multiplication and feed produc- tion to own slaughterhouses, supermarket brands, large retail shops and even a few gas stations. In the supermarkets, the cooperative sells own products and other traditional Bra- zilian brands. In addition, Lar buys products


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from elsewhere (even abroad). These are marketed under the Lar brand, which has a name of being good quality produce. The Lar supermarkets can only be found in southern Brazil, whereas the Lar brand can be found throughout the country and it is even ex- ported to over 74 countries worldwide. Projected turnover in 2019 is R$ 6.95 billion (€ 1.58 billion). In terms of swine production, Lar is integrat- ed. The cooperative has 21,000 sows and an additional 4,000 sows through members. pro- ducing 650,000 piglets in 2019. These are be- ing sent, however, to slaughterhouses and


▶ ALL ABOUT FEED | Volume 27, No. 9, 2019


processing plants belonging to Frimesa, an- other cooperative from the south of Brazil. The products from these plants then can be found for sale in the Lar supermarkets as well as in supermarkets throughout Brazil. The cooperative owns three feed plants – apart from the feed mill in Santa Helena, there is one for pig feed and one for dairy and beef cattle. The cooperative does not have beef cows of its own, but they do have 6,000 dairy cows. In 2018 they produced altogether 25.9 million litres of milk – estimates for 2019 are expected to be closer to 22.2 million litres.


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