São Martinho and Ericsson establish an strategic partnership for the development of 5G solutions for Agribusiness
- Agreement includes the development of joint actions in research and innovation, with a focus on increasing agricultural and industrial efficiency, leveraging the recent investments in agricultural connectivity - “PROJECT COA” - developed by São Martinho
- The goal is to develop solutions that involve the promotion and dissemination of technologies, products and / or services related to telecom networks, IoT and the adoption of 5G standard applied to the agribusiness
São Paulo, September 30th, 2020 – São Martinho SA (SMTO3), a world reference in agroindustrial management, which is among the largest sugar-energy groups in Brazil, and Ericsson (NASDAQ: ERIC), leader in the telecommunications sector, announce an unprecedented agreement in the country, focused on the development of technological innovations for agribusiness to be applied in the IoT environment, based on open connectivity standards 4G and 5G. This initiative will increase the speed of transformation of São Martinho's farms into Smart Farming through 5G connectivity.
São Martinho chose Ericsson as a partner to enable 5G coverage of the entire operation of the São Martinho Plant, considered the largest sugarcane processing unit in the world, located in the city of Pradópolis, where an innovation center will be installed to develop real 5G applications for agribusiness, using 700MHz and 3500MHz frequencies. As next step, a telecom operator, still to be defined, will selected by São Martinho to be part of the partnership. To complete the ecosystem, the participation of entrepreneurs and startups are also expected, enabling more agile and flexible integrations between companies and agribusiness developers.
The use cases of 5G technology, generated as a result of this partnership, will increase São Martinho’s efficiency in processes that require high speed of data transfer and a very low latency, allowing the use of autonomous vehicles such as tractors and trucks, drones for intelligent control of pests and weeds, identification and location of fires in their agricultural areas, among other activities that require processing data and high-speed image.
“The agribusiness sector corresponds to almost 25% of the Brazilian GDP, and only 29% of rural properties are connected, which represents a restrictive factor for innovation and productivity. This is a sector that deserves even more attention when it comes to reducing the digital spread. Currently Brazil occupies the third position in the Agribusiness Export Ranking in the world. Thus, any benefit generated by this partnership between Ericsson and São Martinho will have a strong positive impact and will support the growth of the Brazilian economy”, says Eduardo Ricotta, Ericsson CEO of Latam South, reinforcing the commitment that company assumed to support São Martinho in the digital transformation of its farms.
A sectoral analysis developed by Ericsson showed that connectivity in field will bring a similar disruption to that brought in the 1960s with the tractor, with significant benefits in all aspects of agriculture. The digitalization potential of the Brazilian economy, combined with the maturity of technology of information and communication sector and the consequent emergence of a digital ecosystem, now creates a favorable environment for digital transformation in the field, enabled by connectivity.
“We are very happy to be able to support São Martinho in this important step. In the next 5 years, the high capacity cellular internet coverage (4G and 5G) in the field is expected to cover an area corresponding to that which 2G and 3G technologies took 20 years to achieve. The development of the entire agribusiness chain from the IoT and with the advent of 5G can make Brazil even more productive than it is today. The global demand for plant inputs, food and protein will double until 2050 and Brazil is the only large country, with favorable conditions to increase the supply of food in scale, in addition to huge space for productivity gains in different stages of the chain, making thus becoming the largest exporter of agricultural products in this new decade ”, adds Ricotta.
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MORE INFORMATION:
Corporate Communication Ericsson, LATAM South
Luciana Leite – (11) 99149-4950
luciana.leite@ericsson.com
Corporate Communication São Martinho
Aline Reigada
aline.reigada@saomartinho.com.br
Conceito Comunicação – Press office
Gustavo Junqueira – (16) 98123-2496
gustavo@conceitocomunic.com.br