Bruno Mortara of ABTG on standards and certifications for the Brazilian printing industry

Bruno Mortara, Technical Director at ABTG talks to Cary Sherburne about the organization and the work they've done with standards for the Brazilian printing industry.

Cary Sherburne: Hi, I’m Cary Sherburne, Senior Editor at WhatTheyThink. And I'm here with Bruno Mortara who is the director of ABTG, a certification organization in Brazil. Welcome.

Bruno Mortara: Thank you very much, Cary.

Cary Sherburne: Perhaps you could start by having you tell us a little bit about ABTG and what role that plays in that printing industry in Brazil.

Bruno Mortara: Great. ABTG is under the umbrella of the National Printing Association. And we are responsible for all the developments on the technical side of the printing industry. And behalf of the National Association, we developed this certification body that is very independent as a structure from the previous organizations. So the idea is to be able to certify all the nice work that have been doing by consultants or other organizations as AD Alliance and other organizations that do ISO flavor certifications and all of that.

Cary Sherburne: So you’re taking some of the work that’s been done globally, and then translating that down to being able to be applied within the Brazilian—

Bruno Mortara: Great. As a technical explanation, we have done a huge job since three years. We have created a national standard. Soon enough, each beat of ISO standard that is relevant to the whole printing process. And then at the end we have this national standard. Against which we can make certification and now we’ve been accredited by the National Seed that is seated by AIFF . It’s a chain of accreditation. So when you have this certification, and we are audited also, the industry can be sure that their processes are audited and certified.

Cary Sherburne: And about what percentage of the printing companies in Brazil are certified?

Bruno Mortara: Oh we are just starting up.

Cary Sherburne: Okay, so small today.

Bruno Mortara: Small today. We started up with the hugest printing company in Brazil, that they—

Cary Sherburne: Carlohile or no, that’s Columbia?

Bruno Mortara: No, Abrillo. And we are very confident that the market that has been target by many consultants, many companies that used to sell. They feel more confident when they have an independent and neutral third party certification.

Cary Sherburne: Yeah that’s great, great work. And so you’ve got a lot more ahead of you though.

Bruno Mortara: Oh yeah. We just started this part of the work.

Cary Sherburne: That’s great, thank you.