The Executive President (CEO) of Navigator, António Redondo, defended this Monday the expansion of the eucalyptus planting area in Portugal to ensure the company’s sustainability.
“To remain sustainable, we need to plant more eucalyptus forests,” said the manager at the 70th anniversary celebration of the Navigator factory in Cacia, Aveiro.
In his speech, António Redondo said that it is necessary “to unravel what people think about the species, condemning it for lack of knowledge”. And he appealed for everyone’s help in this goal to “appreciate a unique species that Portugal can and should be proud of”.
When asked by Lusa on this subject, the manager declined to go into detail, but A company source said that there is currently a shortage of forestry raw materials such as eucalyptus, pine and cork oak, which will affect the pulp industry in the future.
The expansion of eucalyptus trees is seen by environmentalists and some political parties as one of the problems that contributed to forest fires in Portugal, leading the government to create conditions for planting or replanting eucalyptus trees.
Navigator’s executive chairman also announced that a unit at the Cacia plant for the integrated production of molded eucalyptus pulp parts for the food industry would start in the first half of 2024.
“We are therefore going to contribute to deplasticizing,” said the same official, adding that this unit will produce 100 million packages per year to replace plastic packaging in the food service and food packaging markets.
On July 23, 1953, production began at the Cacia factory of the then Companhia Portuguesa de Celulose (CPC), predecessor of The Navigator Company.
Currently, the Cacia industrial complex includes a biomass cogeneration plant linked to the pulp mill and a thermoelectric biomass plant for the production of renewable energy.
According to company data, by 2022, nearly 200,000 tons of paper pulp and about 50,000 tons of “tissue” (used in toilet paper, kitchen towels, or kitchen towels) left this industrial complex for more than 40 countries around the world.
Navigator is the third largest exporter in Portugal and the largest generator of national value added, accounting for about 1% of the national gross domestic product, about 3% of the national export of goods and more than 30,000 direct, indirect and induced jobs.
In 2022, The Navigator Company had a turnover of 2.465 billion euros. More than 80% of the group’s products are sold outside Portugal and are destined for around 130 countries.
Source: DN
