SUSTAINABILITY first
In line with global trends, BASF has diversified its portfolio to provide more solutions focused on sustainability, innovations, and digitalization.
“We are delivering our solutions to local producers in many industrial segments.”
What is BASF’s history in Ecuador?
We have been in the country for 55 years and see great opportunities in Ecuador. It is not only an oil country, but it also has strong agriculture and aquaculture sectors. BASF has highly relevant solutions for almost of all industries in the country. We support Ecuadorian exporters for them to reach their destinations with high quality products that differentiate Ecuador. For example, about 60% of our agricultural solutions portfolio is focused on protecting the main diseases that affect banana plantations. During the pandemic, we became closer to the flower sector to provide training to agricultures to improve their production efforts. In addition, we have put in great effort to work on the inclusion of women in the agriculture sector. Our team specializing in flowers is 100% female. We have witnessed significant growth there. We have also strengthened our presence in the aquaculture industry growing along with exporters and consolidating as their main supplier.
What sector has the largest growth potential?
We believe agriculture has a great potential in Ecuador due to the great weather conditions in our country and we are committed to provide technification, digitalization, and sustainable solutions to the agriculture business. Aquaculture keeps growing, and we are growing with them through a closer relationship to better understand and support our customers. We also see that the industrial sector in Ecuador has a significant growth potential. We are delivering our solutions to local producers in many industrial segments such as personal care, home products, furniture, human nutrition, animal nutrition, plastic recycling among others.
You have worked in BASF for 18 years. How has the company evolved during that time?
We have diversified our portfolio to provide more solutions focused on sustainability, innovations, and digitalization. We are also seeing more women in leadership roles at a global level. In Ecuador, about 33% of the decision-making positions are held by women, and this is a figure that we want to continue to improve in the near future. Safety has always been imperative to our company. Because of the pandemic, we are now providing psychological support to workers. We have been awarded by Aproque because of how we took care of our team during the pandemic. For a long time, people have been a crucial point of BASF’s strategy, and the company has worked toward consolidating the best team. When I started in BASF, the company had an oil operations division. That is no longer part of our portfolio, and we have made important investments in batteries (among other more sustainable areas) to support environmentally friendly energy initiatives. We have solutions for wind farms and the recycling process of plastics. This is close to our purpose: We create chemistry for a sustainable future and that is something our team is proud to be part of. We received an award from First Job that acknowledges us as the best companies for younger workers during 2021.
How is the company working to push toward a circular economy in Ecuador?
When we talk about the circular economy, we need to consider the complete chain from the production of raw materials to its final disposition. We have solutions that integrate those concepts in several industries, and we also support our customers with eco-efficiency analyses to understand better where should they focus their efforts to become more sustainable companies. For example, we were the first in Ecuador to deliver agrochemicals via drones reducing the impact of people manipulating chemical products and its dosage. We have vegan solutions for our customers in the personal care business. We have compostable plastics. If 2020 taught us anything, it is that we must be more responsible. Sustainability has been at the core of the solutions that BASF has provided around the world. We live our purpose to create chemistry for a sustainable future.