We have a great challenge and a huge opportunity to create value in the countryside and improve the level of productivity and demand for Mexicans living in rural areas

Daniel Servitje.

President and CEO of Grupo Bimbo

Daniel is convinced that “we have a great challenge and a huge opportunity to create value in the countryside and improve the level of productivity and demand for Mexicans living in rural areas”.

He speaks with authority and knowledge, since issues such as social responsibility and agro-food are not unfamiliar to him. The youngest son of the company’s founder, Lorenzo Servitje, Daniel is now in charge of leading Grupo Bimbo. One of the paths he has to lead is the firm’s partnerships, such as the one established several years ago with multinational food groups in order to form a global commitment to help implement the Diet, Physical Activity and Health Strategy of the World Health Organization.

The Law

During the last General Ordinary Assembly of the National Agricultural Council, President Enrique Peña Nieto and Minister of Agriculture, Livestock, Rural Development, Fisheries and Food (SAGARPA), Enrique Martínez y Martínez, stated the importance of reforming the law regulating the rural sector. Daniel Servitje Montull fully agrees with this initiative, which he considers necessary and urgent. Servitje, a promoter of social programs and current member of the Advisory Council of SAGARPA, said that “we need to boost the growth of the production in a way that allows us to guarantee food and nutritional security for everyone in a sustainable way, with economic growth, improved quality of life and better incomes for farmers, as well as proper marketing of products at a national and international level”.

Solutions

With wide experience in the field, Daniel assured that the goal is to produce more, but with the same resources: with the existing farmland and the same amount of water. “One of the possible solutions is to migrate to smart subsidies: the low cost of water and electricity generates waste and overexploitation of the aquifers, as well as lack of incentives to invest in resource-sparing technologies. We should move over from aid subsidies to productive and sustainable subsidies, so as to promote that farmers provide added value to the lands they work.”

Among the actions that can be implemented to achieve this, are “promoting the change to sustainable diets, reversing the erosion of land and promoting conservation tillage. Also, significantly increasing the yield of crops and keeping the international markets open”, said the businessman, who leads a company that pretends “to become the best baking company in the world and a leader in the food industry by 2015. A firm where our people make the difference every day”.

THE THIRD

Daniel Servitje is the third CEO of Grupo Bimbo, a position that his father Lorenzo held since the founding of the Company until 1979, when Roberto Servitje, Daniel’s uncle, replaced him on the chair.

REFORESTEMOS MEXICO

Grupo Bimbo has distinguished itself by its social work. In 1998, the company joined a national reforestation campaign after devastating forest fires hit Mexico. The initiative was so successful that four years later the firm created the civil association “Reforestemos México”, in order to maintain and restore the trees, forests and jungles of the country. Through this organization, Grupo Bimbo promotes sustainable forest management, and the development of local capacity through community projects from the Sierra Tarahumara to the Selva Maya, attending different ethnic groups. In addition, the firm is also interested in promoting that both people and companies know, understand and value the environmental services provided by the forests, as well as their role in mitigating climate change, which are now seen and felt so clearly. Hence the importance of society adopting lifestyles that are compatible with the preservation of forest resources.