Armando João Dalla Costa
Lemann Distinguished Visiting Professor
Bunge Brazil (1956 to 1994): Consolidation of an Economic Group
This paper aims to show that Bunge Brazil consolidated itself as an economic group
in the second half of the twentieth century. Founded in Amsterdam in 1818, it has
operated in the country since 1905, arriving from Argentina where it was present
since the end of the 19th century under the name of Bunge & Born. In the 1990s
Bunge Brazil group had 127 independent firms. For this article we selected four of
them, representing several sectors: wheat and milling (Mill Fluminense); paints,
varnishes and derivatives (Coral Paints); agribusiness and exports (Sanbra);
textile and clothing industry (Santista Textil). Theoretically the text follows the
authors who discuss the formation of economic groups in peripheral economies.
The primary data were collected from the Bunge Memory Center in São Paulo and
through interviews. As a preliminary conclusion, it can be said that Bunge has
consolidated itself as an economic group whereas it diversified its activities and
transformed some of its 127 companies into industrial conglomerates by having
their own affiliates, and forming themselves into other economic groups.
