Good morning, and welcome to Camil Alimentos's conference call related to the results for the fourth quarter of 2021. Here with us today are Mr. Luciano Quartiero, our President and CEO. Mr. Flavio Vargas, CFO, and the company's Investor Relations. We would like to inform you that this meeting is being recorded, and all the participants will be in listen-only mode during the company's presentation. Participants may ask questions during the Q&A session, which is only for analysts and people with investment interest. Any forward-looking statements that might be made during this conference call relate to Camil's expectations, outlook, projections and financial outlook. Those are mere assumptions based on the management expectations and also available information. They involve risks and uncertainties and relate to future events. Therefore, they refer to events that may or may not occur.
Investors should understand that economic conditions may also affect Camil's future conditions, and hence, results may differ materially from those expressed in the forward-looking statement. We have announced a brief group management presentation, followed by Flavio's presentation, and then open for questions. Thank you.
Welcome to Camil's comments on the results for the fourth quarter of 2021. This year is very special. It marks the execution of our expansion strategy, reinforcing a positioning that I would like to emphasize again with you. We at Camil are a Brazilian multinational company with one of the most comprehensive platforms of products and brands that are leaders in the food market in Latin America. Today, we are already present in five countries and several categories, with brands of relevant recognition by consumers and with a workforce of approximately 7,000 employees. On slide 3, we see that since the IPO in 2017, we have reinforced our growth strategy and invested more than BRL 1.1 billion in acquisitions, contemplating SLC Alimentos in 2018, which is the fifth-largest grain company in Brazil at the time.
In addition to all the relevant acquisitions we made in the last year that we will elaborate more on the next slides. With these 2021 acquisitions, we entered into three new categories in a new country in Latin America, all in less than 4 months, with agile and efficient integrations and strategy, mapping of the commercial business and operating synergies. On slide 4, starting with Brazil, in December, we completed the incorporation of Santa Amália. Santa Amália is the fourth-largest company in the pasta segment in the country, with leadership in the state of Minas Gerais, with more than 40% of the pasta market share in the region. This leadership in a place that since the IPO we have reinforced our interest in strengthening and expanding our operations, provides important growth potential for our other categories in Brazil.
In addition, we will use our distribution and sales force in other regions, such as São Paulo, to expand the pasta category. We have successfully integrated the operations in a short period of time and leveraged the expected synergies, doubling this amount to BRL 25 million per year in SG&A synergies. Besides pasta, in one of our last public events, which was Camil Day in December, we highlighted the announcement of the company's entry into the coffee category. This is a major milestone in Camil's growth strategy. We first announced the acquisition of the Seleto brand, then the launch of coffee under the União brand, and then the investment made in the company Café Bom Dia.
The three announcements put us at a new level to enter the category in 2022 on the right foot, an execution that has already been happening and is reaching several points of sale directly and indirectly, especially in São Paulo. União is one of the most traditional brands in the country and was once the market leader in coffee. We will take advantage of this consumer recall to revitalize a consolidated and prosperous brand, which already has the trust and preference of clients and consumers in the sweetened coffee category. The operation we have today via Café Bom Dia in Varginha, Minas Gerais, one of the main coffee-producing regions of the country, allows us to reach a production capacity close to 36,000 tons. We are expanding this capacity to 60,000 tons a year and are confident in this execution.
Internationally, we first announced the expansion of operations into Ecuador. We acquired the rice business of Dajahu, a leader in aged rice segment with high growth potential in the country. In addition, we announced the acquisition of Silcom, a company in Uruguay that will enable us to expand in the Uruguayan domestic market and will provide us know-how in a new category: healthy products, which are increasingly growing in preference and convenience among consumers. Slide five. Here, we take advantage of the amount invested in acquisitions. I would like to highlight two other fronts in terms of value generation.
We reached gross revenues of BRL 10.3 billion in the year, double our earnings in the last years when we went public, demonstrating our power to grow with economies of scale and organic growth, strategic acquisitions with relevant brands and operating synergies, as well as the agile execution of our business transformation for fast growth and insertion in our businesses. Furthermore, we distributed more than BRL 530 million in proceeds, in addition to those announced alongside the result of BRL 55 million, and we have canceled shares and buyback programs since 2018. Today, we have a program in place to repurchase 10 million shares, and we continue to focus on shareholder value creation actions. Slide six. Turning to the operating figures, we highlight the higher than historical average growth in volumes in the quarter and year-on-year.
We posted 17% growth in Brazil in Q4 2021 and 7% in the year, mainly due to the increase in grain sales. In international, we posted a 44% growth in Q4 2021 and an expected 7% reduction in the year due to lower volumes in Uruguay and Peru. Slide 7. Starting the analysis with grains in an industry with stable growth in consumption in the country, we strengthen our execution and commercial strategy, outperforming the competition and enhancing the growth of our premium brand, Camil, in the category. We reported double-digit volume growth in the period for rice, with Camil brand growth standing out as a result of our focus on cross-selling strategies and product mix of brands with high recognition by consumers. Camil's net price was down by 20% in the quarter and up 2% in the year. Slide 8.
In beans, we also posted double-digit growth in volume with the Camil brand again standing out. This effect was partially offset by the reduction in profitability in the year with a competitive scenario in bean prices in Brazil. We understand that this was a one-off effect, and the category is still in a process of recovery, experiencing new volume levels. Camil's net price was down by 1% in the quarter and up 1% in the year. Slide 9. In sugar, volume grew 1% in the quarter and remained stable in the year. The result was influenced by the sales growth of the leading brand in the quarter and the lower pricing brands in the year.
In the sequential comparison, it is worth noting that volumes were down as a result of a disruption in the overall delivery of refined sugar by the main sugar suppliers, which is a one-off scenario that was also offset by the profitability of the category in the period. Camil's net price was up 41% in the quarter and 46% in the year. Slide 10. In the fish category, the volume was impacted by the reduction in sales from the leading brands and sardines in the period, partially compensated by the growth in tuna. Volume was below expectations with difficulties and consequent disruption in the sourcing of local and imported raw material, partially offset by the sales effort in the tuna category. Camil's net price was up 14% in the quarter and 17% in the year. Slide 11. In international, we reported significant growth in the quarter.
On an annual basis, we posted an expected reduction in sales in Uruguay due to the reduction in stocks from one harvest to another, and consequently, less availability of raw material for sales last year. In Peru, we also had lower sales due to the country's economic and political scenario, with a drop in the consumption of packaged products compared to the consumption of rice in bulk. This effect was partially offset by the excellent performance in Chile, which has been showing growth in sales and profitability. As we have already mentioned, with no basis for comparison, we have aggregated the results from the date of completion of the transaction. We are optimistic about improvements in efficiency and sales, and we are moving forward with the integration process into our business model.
Finally, I would like to highlight that we have started a new cycle full of challenges with the expansion of our capacity to generate business and focus on the fast and efficient integration of our M&As. The team is 100% focused on maintaining efficient structures and taking advantage of sales and financial synergies with the new acquisitions, as well as focusing on the launch of the coffee category in Brazil. Now, to get into more details about the financial performance in the quarter, I would like to give the floor to Flávio. You may proceed, Flávio.
Thank you, Luciano. Now, moving to slide 13 and starting with the analysis of the financial performance. We reached the milestone of BRL 10.3 billion in gross revenue for the year and BRL 2.6 billion for the quarter.
Net revenue totaled BRL 9 billion and BRL 2.3 billion for the year and the quarter, increases of more than 20% compared to the previous year. Slide 14. In the revenue front, it is worth mentioning that in Brazil, both prices and volumes had a positive impact when compared to the previous year, as already explained by Luciano by category. In the international business, we had the exchange rate effects on the negative side, but well offset by the increase in prices and volumes in the quarter. Slide 15. Moving on to the financial highlights of the quarter, COGS was up by 25% with an increase in the prices of packaging inputs and raw materials, mainly sugar in Brazil, in addition to higher volumes and the addition of the acquisitions into the company's results. SG&A grew 40%, representing 15% of net revenue.
The increase was due to sales expenses with an increase in freight and the company's sales level in the period, in addition to G&A expenses related to M&As of BRL 17 million. Other operating revenues amounted to a positive 107 million reals in the quarter due to non-recurring effects totaling 106 million in the quarter and the year related to the valuation of the advantageous purchase of Dajahu in Ecuador and discounts obtained in the renegotiation of debts of Café Bom Dia, a company acquired in 2021 that was under judicial reorganization, and the difference calculated in the renegotiation and payment of taxes installments also of Café Bom Dia. Taking these factors into account, EBITDA for the quarter reached BRL 234 million, up 60% with a margin of 10.3%.
Excluding the above described non-recurring effects of other operating revenues and other M&A expenses totaling BRL 86 million, EBITDA stood at BRL 146 million with a margin of 6.4% in Q4 2021. It is worth noting that adjusted EBITDA, both in the quarter and in the year, were impacted by Brazil's performance in the fish segment with raw material disruptions in sardines in the period and lower profitability in the bean category, as explained by Luciano. Both represented around 1% margin in the expected results for the year. Slide 16. Moving on to the highlights of costs and expenses for the year. Cost of goods sold showed growth with an increase in the prices of packaging inputs and the acquisition cost of raw materials, mainly sugar and beans in Brazil.
COGS or cost of goods sold, as well as other indicators, was also impacted by the entry of wheat into the pasta category in Brazil and by Ecuador in the international business front. SG&A for the year grew 18% but remained at levels of 14% of net revenue, maintaining our efficient and lean structure as we have always stressed as a priority for our business model. The growth occurred with the entry of the results of Ecuador and Santa Amália in SG&A, in addition to the increase in sales expenses in Brazil, represented by increased freight and the company's higher sales level. It is worth noting that G&A was also impacted by mergers and acquisitions expenses in the period, such as advisory and legal fees amounting to BRL 17 million.
Other operating revenues amounted to BRL 109 million in the year for the same non-recurring reasons already explained, totaling BRL 106 million. In the year, EBITDA stood at BRL 810 million with a margin of 9%. Excluding the non-recurring effects described above from other operating revenues and other M&A expenses, EBITDA was BRL 721 million with a margin of 8% for the year. Slide 17. The company's total debt was BRL 3.3 billion, an increase of 48% due to the new funding to cope with the recently announced acquisitions. Net debt over EBITDA UDM reached 2x at the end of the period. Even considering the four acquisitions made last year, the company is still leveraged with room to meet its commitments and proceed with its growth strategy.
CapEx for the period was BRL 1 billion with BRL 848 million in mergers and acquisitions and BRL 244 million in other expansion and maintenance projects. Finally, I would like to take this opportunity to reinforce that we executed two buyback programs in the last year and canceled, as a subsequent event, 10 million shares after the beginning of our new current buyback program, the seventh program since the IPO. We are at 360 million shares in total and currently repurchasing up to 10 million shares within 18 months. Slide 18. Finally, I would like to mention a few ESG highlights. We believe that the materiality strategy is the most assertive one for us to focus on topics that make an effective difference in our business and our surroundings.
This year, we carried out our materiality matrix with consultation forwarded to more than 3,000 stakeholders contemplating all the countries where we operate. We are preparing to bring our sustainability report to the market in the first half of 2022 following the best global practices and methodologies for transparency and disclosure, including GRI, SASB, TCFD, and our actions in support of the UN's Agenda 2030. Today, we have nearly 7,000 employees, and we have strengthened our internal ESG actions with working groups focused on environmental, procurement, social, and governance actions in all countries of operation with targets for the entire executive board and actions aligned to the global compact. It is important to highlight that all of our actions are based on the strategic pillars disclosed to you during our Camil Day. Our actions are focused on quality and sales, purpose and people, and efficiency and growth.
In regards to the environment, in 2021, more than 40% of the rice husk produced by Camil was used internally to generate renewable energy, and 94% of the total energy used in Brazil came from renewable sources. In order to increase this use, we are developing a new thermoelectric plant with a capacity to consume up to 100% of the husk generation in the new Cambaí project, with funding linked to the issue of green debentures by the company in 2021. This is an action totally connected to actions that help us with waste disposal, emission reduction, generation of renewable energy, and that provides a differentiated look at ESG associated to the company's operations.
On the social side, we support projects related to income generation, such as the free online confectionery course, Doce Futuro União, in addition to a training program in the communities surrounding our plants in line with the need for skilled labor. Still in the social area, we achieved levels of excellence when it comes to reducing accidents, as you can see, and we should have more indicators and information for you in the publication of the report and on a quarterly basis for monitoring purposes. Slide 19. In closing, we have made important expansion moves in 2021, and we believe that our broad and proven experience acquired over the years with the integration of our acquisitions places us in a unique position to not only correctly identify potential acquisitions, but more importantly, to quickly integrate them into our business model, delivering these gains in scale and efficiency.
We are focused on maintaining an efficient structure and always evaluating new expansion opportunities that we can exploit with our know-how and our distributed platform in Latin America. We remain at your disposal for Q&A in case you have any questions. Thank you very much.
Thank you. We will now initiate the Q&A session for investors and analysts. In case you have questions, please press.
Raise hand.
Raise hand. The Raise hand icon in the platform. Once your question is answered, you can click again over the same icon. Please hold until we collect the questions. Our first question comes from Mr. Gustavo Troyano from Itaú BBA. Gustavo, your microphone is open.
Good morning, everyone. Good morning, Luciano and Flavio. I have two points that I would like to elaborate with you. First relates to profitability, and I'm focusing more on your first quarter of your fiscal year. Could you elaborate a bit more about how profitability evolved from the fourth quarter to now, and whether you could tell us whether your fish supply issue has been resolved, or if there is anything else that could be done in that regard?
In terms of beans competition, if that still remains a problem, if you'd shed some light on profitability as a whole, but focusing on these two points, that will be very useful. The second question relates to coffee. Luciano, you talked about that expansion from 36 to 60,000 tons. Could you please also share with us a little bit about this timing until you think that the expansion will be finalized and the ramp-up time that is necessary to conclude that activity in the next few months? Still talking about coffee, what was the reaction of the competition once you entered the market with that União coffee brand? What was the behavior of your competitors? Thank you.
Good morning, Gustavo. These are excellent questions. About profitability first. I think my first observation is that historically, Camil has always operated between 10%-11%. In this year that just ended, we excluded non-recurring effects, so that was 8%. As you said, there was the big impact coming from our fish and beans categories. My first observation to you about the margin is that Camil, yes, we expect to resume, to go back to that level of 10%-11%, which is our historical level. We have great expectations about the recent acquisitions. In the four acquisitions, the two new segments, Ecuador and the operation in Uruguay, the four acquisitions are operating at margins above our historical levels.
Therefore, for the mid-range, we have a very good expectation in terms of this recovery, and then we are sure that we will be able to resume previous levels. In the first quarter, we had the margin recovery. Fish is an issue that hasn't been surpassed yet, but in the first months, we were running at the expected levels of the company. Beans, we are expecting some improvement. This is a process that will occur gradually throughout the year. We do not want to miss that new volume level that the company has achieved, so we expect this recovery to happen gradually. What happened in the first two months of the year really surprised us, positively speaking. I think we are on the right track.
Now, in terms of coffee, the expansion of the plant, I mean, should be ready by October or November of this year. We s tarted selling, you know, União. We thought we were gonna start selling in March. Well, it was at the end of March, so we only had a few days of sales of União in March. April was in fact our first full month with the product. Clients and consumers are really pleased with the product. Our growth curve in terms of volume is within expected levels, and the margins that we achieved with this first month of operation was above Camil's historical levels. I mean, at first, in terms of your question about the competition, I do believe that we will hear from them. Right at first, since the volume we have to dispose of is still small, we are concentrating our sales in large clients.
This first month, we haven't felt any direct reaction from the competition because as our volumes are still low, the impact in the market is also low. We believe that it's coming. I think what really matters in terms of our first 40 days, and I often say that we have to climb steps one at a time. The first step is not simple because we put the products on the shelf, and it has to be on the shelf, you know, with the right pricing, and this is what happened. You know, end users are beginning to test our products, and we are already seeing some customers buying it again, which is a great sign. It means that the product is being well accepted. In fact, the company was already very optimistic in this segment, and we remain optimistic.
Perfect, Luciano. Thank you very much.
Our next question comes from Mr. Guilherme Palhares from Bank of America. You may proceed, sir.
Good morning, Luciano, Flavio. Can you hear me?
Yes, we can.
Well, thank you for taking my question. Well, first of all, I would like to thank the IR team for putting all of the information on the website yesterday. That was really important. I have two questions. It's a follow-on question on Gustavo's question. Whenever we talk about expansion in Santa Amália , the expansion of your coffee capacity, and then you have the thermoelectric plant. What do you have in mind in terms of CapEx for 2022? In addition, I mean, coffee, I mean, with a margin above your historical levels is very much concentrated in a few customers.
As the company grows and becomes more diversified in terms of channel, do you believe it's possible to maintain this margin or even with a potential upside in terms of what you see today? Thank you.
Thank you for your questions, Guilherme. Very good questions. In terms of CapEx, let me give you some figures. The investment in the thermal electric plant is BRL 150 million, and it's being funded through that green bonds transaction that we did. Our recurring CapEx is usually around BRL 100-120 million a year. I mean, in terms of increasing our capacity, you know, pasta capacity and have some potential gains, investment will be around BRL 70 million, and to grow the coffee business will be around BRL 20 million. These are the major investments that we hired in the year.
We have another investment, significant investment that the company is being evaluated, and this will be a new rice plant in the south of the country. This is a project that we've been studying for a few years already, and we believe that it will be implemented in the next 18-24 months. This would require more robust investment, and it will be spread around a period of two years. This will be a new plant, state-of-the-art plant, extremely efficient. I think this would be a reference in the market when it comes to production costs. This investment, I mean, has been on our radar for a few years. With this interest rate scenario, we've been reassessing all of our investments. This is a decision that we should take in the next coming months.
Once this investment is approved and once it is implemented, this would have an effect of approximately BRL 100 million-BRL 150 million this year and the same amount for the following year in case we decide to move ahead at this time. Now, in terms of the margins for coffee. Yes, we started well. As we start expanding into other channels and increasing our distribution, that's when I expect to see some response or some reaction from our main competitors. What I think is interesting about our model is that our production is extremely efficient. The plant is in the right location. We are concentrating the position in a single site, which is a producing region that has the ideal tax regime. Therefore, I'm very optimistic because I believe we will have very competitive costs.
Going forward, I think in the future there may be an impact in the short run in view of our growth and the rebalancing of the market positions amongst, you know, main players. In the mid-range, we believe that this will be above our historical levels. This is what I can tell you so far.
That's very clear, Luciano. Just as a follow-up, can you please tell me a little bit about this new rice unit in Rio Grande do Sul? Could you please share with us a little bit? I know it's already too soon, but just, you know, as a general overview, what will be possible for you to increase in terms of capacity or even in terms of costs in, and synergies and maybe, you know, lower costs for the company?
You know, I mean, this is a topic that, I mean, we will give you more information as the project evolves. The main idea is that we want to increase our production capacity in this region, which is in the west part of the state of Rio Grande do Sul, in the municipality of Itaqui. The initial idea was to increase our production capacity by 25% and discontinue the oldest plant of the company, and this will bring about a significant cost reduction. I would rather not comment about this right now, but this is a very interesting investment. As we evolve, I mean, the, our IR team will probably, you know, give you more information as we move along. Thank you very much.
Our next question from Lucas Ferreira from JP Morgan. Lucas, your microphone is open.
Sir Lucas Ferreira.
Mr. Ferreira, your microphone is open. Just go ahead whenever you're ready.
Oh, good morning. Thank you for this opportunity. First of all, could you please tell us a little bit about the consumption landscape in Brazil, and talk a little bit about this quarter and how things are evolving in this first quarter as well in terms of consumption, you know, higher inflation and whether this has impacted your business. I mean, do you see any impact in volumes? And what is the scenario you see in terms of volume in your main categories this year? Secondly, in regards to pasta, more particularly about pasta, we see that this is a very critical sector, especially concerning the impact coming from wheat.
I know this is not a very relevant business for you at the moment, but if I could hear from you anything about the profitability of the business, you know, transfer pricing. I mean, anything you can tell me about that would be nice. Thank you very much.
Lucas, thank you very much for your question. I think. First of all, well, we are closing this year with a very significant growth. Myself and the rest of my team, we're very happy with our performance of this past year. Once we look at the growth, both coming from grains and also the other categories. The categories where we had an impact, like in fish. If it weren't for the lack of fish, we would have been able to deliver growth. The same thing goes for sugar.
I mean, there was some lack of sugar in the middle of the year, and I think I talked about that in previous occasions. If it weren't for that, we would probably deliver growth. More importantly, when we talk about grains or when we talk about rice and beans, where we saw significant growth, most of this growth came from the Camil brand. When we look at our growth in rice of the Camil brand, it was almost 12%. Overall, the overall growth in the category, I think it was just 8 or 9%. Whenever we talk about beans, the growth was 21%-22%, and the Camil brand grew 25%. This shows the resilience and the strength of the brand.
Therefore, we have been monitoring this downtrend move very closely, and it is very clear to everyone that the population has been losing purchasing power in the past few years. The company has been very diligent in protecting and growing our main brands in every single category. When we look at the performance of the Camil brand vis-à-vis the performance of rice and beans in March and April, it's better than the lower pricing brands in a comparative basis. This just shows that our execution has been very good in the period. Well, I think you also had another more general question about our expectations for this year. We expect to grow in every single category.
This is an adverse scenario, but the company is very much focused on being even more efficient, reducing costs, you know, and trying to get, you know, a product with a good pricing to our consumers and ensure returns that are back to historical levels. Despite this adverse scenario that some of our categories are very resilient, the company is very optimistic with what we see coming forward despite all of these, you know, adverse scenarios. Now, talking about pasta. In fact, it's been a challenge, especially regarding origination, all the price increases, the cost of wheat due to the war in Ukraine and Russia. I think we are, you know, experiencing a very unusual scenario. In the first few months, the company has performed in terms of pasta margins above Camil's historical levels. The company was able to transfer prices and all of those cost increases.
The company was well-positioned, strategically speaking, in terms of supply. We already have, you know, a locked volume for the next coming months with very competitive cost. We are posting the necessary price increases just to cover our replacement costs. What has happened due to the current landscape, the feeling we have is that the entire retail is more sensitive to these increases because we understand what's happening. I mean, price of wheat in the last six months or maybe in the last four months, I would say, we saw a significant increase between 40%-60% of the prices of wheat. We didn't transfer the entire amount of that increase, but we are getting there.
We believe that in the next 60 days, we will be able to transfer the remaining of that increase just to cover for the replacement cost. The volume performance is very good, profitability is good. Our position in terms of flour was well orchestrated, well bid, so our profitability is well in place for the next coming months. I think this is what I can tell you in terms of where we stand at the moment.
Perfect, Luciano. Thank you.
As a reminder, for questions, just press the Raise Hand button. Our next question comes from Mr. Roberto Costa via chat. Good morning. Congrats on your results and the presentation. Currently, what is Camil's stake in the national coffee market? Thank you.
Camil is entering the coffee business now. Our estimate is that the coffee market has an average monthly consumption of 100,000 tons. In Camil's growing process and considering our current capacity, we can reach 3%, and this is an achievement that we want to reach at the end of the year. I mean, 1,000 tons a month is what we will have by October, November. With that, we will have the capacity to reach 5% of the market, you know, based on consumption. Our desire is that in the next coming years, we will be able to resume leadership with the União brand, because União brand has been a leader 20 years ago with a share of 25%.
Well, certainly it will take some time until we get that. We would do that gradually, but the company is getting prepared to resume the leadership of the brand.
Next question from Gabriel Assunção, also through the chat. Good morning, Luciano and Flavio. I would like to congratulate your efforts because you fulfilled. Well, you really delivered what you promised because you entered into the coffee business, which was a promise during the Camil Day. I have two questions. First of all, despite all of the initiatives, the market hasn't yet responded, you know, in terms of your share. You went from 410 million shares, and you are getting close to 360 million shares. Do you intend to proceed with the buyback of shares? For Luciano, I have a very qualitative question.
Thinking in the long run, where do you think Camil wants to be in the long run? Where do you see further room for expansion? Are there entries in new categories? Now, what do you think that if you add another product category, whether that would add, you know, more things to the company or it will be out of the scope of the company's core business?
Gabriel, thank you very much for your question, and thank you for monitoring our financial performance and our shares so closely. In terms of the buyback program, this is a topic that has been extensively debated in our board. Throughout the last few years, we have shown and we are convinced that doing the buyback is a very clear way to add more value to our shareholders.
We try to make a comparative evaluation of, you know, what would be the possibilities, you know, in terms of capital allocation vis-à-vis other companies. I think that as long as we have this connection between Camil's price, which is being traded in the market as the actual intrinsic value of the company, we should then continue to discuss the topic. If it makes sense, we will then approve new buyback programs. When we look at the price of our shares and we compare that to other alternatives we have, even in terms of acquisitions, oftentimes we cannot make an acquisition at the price of our stocks. I think that, yes, this buyback topic will be constantly revisited, and I do believe that we will be successful, and we will probably be approving other programs like that, you know, by the board.
Well, continuing with the answer and in relation to the categories, Camil, after it entered into these new categories in the past 15 years, if you go back to 2007, Camil was 100% focused on rice and beans. From 2007 until 2021, we entered into 4 other countries, and we added four new categories. Camil, especially in Brazil, where we entered into these new categories, we saw that it made a lot of sense because there were a lot of synergies, there was a reduction in the cost to serve. So that was very important for our growth, and we saw a lot of value in growing like that, in gaining scale. Camil also wishes to get into a new category in Brazil, and we are working to that end still, you know, in the wheat category.
We see a lot of sense in terms of taking that diversification model to be a multi-category company and take that model in the other countries where we're already operating and new South American countries that we wish to get into. We see a lot of value. In time, we will continue to see value, and we will continue to do what we've been doing in the past years.
As a reminder, if you have questions, just press the icon Raise Hand. Our next question also came via chat from Mr. Alexandre de Souza. What is the expected gross margin for the coffee segment? And in what stage is your renewable energy project, and when do you believe that you will have a startup of that thermoelectric plant funded by the green debentures?
The coffee margin. Well, Camil doesn't, you know, disclose margins per segment. As I was saying, the first month of operation, we operated above historical levels of Camil, which is around 10%-11% of EBITDA. We started very well in terms of coffee profitability. I think we might have some difficulties as we ramp up and as we grow further. In the mid and long range, we will reach levels above Camil's historical levels. Our new thermoelectric plant, as I was saying before, and the way it was funded, is an investment of BRL 150 million, and that construction is expected to be ready by June 2023. It was quite interesting because the plant will use all of the rice husks that has been generated in our plants in the region where the plant is being built.
Because of that, Camil will become an, you know, self-sufficient in energy. All of the energy generated in that plant could also be used by our other plants in that part of the country, in the south. I would just like to remind you that this plant, I mean, the conclusion of that plant will also increase our production capacity. Today, Camil is already operating in power co-generation. In the other two plants we have in Rio Grande do Sul, one in Capão do Leão and the other one in Itaqui, we're already producing energy based on the burning of rice husks, and that accounts for approximately 40% of our energy needs. With this expansion and the new plant, we will become self-sufficient. We even believe that there will be some surplus that could be sold, you know, in the free market.
In fact, today, we are already operating in this segment.
Thank you. The Q&A session is now concluded. We would like to thank you all for joining us today, and have a very good day.