05/25/2024 – 8:20
Contrary to other segments, the sugarcane industry has been expanding in recent years in the country. The sector, which until a decade ago suffered from bankruptcies and plant closures, recently opened new plants and is on its way to the second largest volume milling this year. According to the director of Sector Intelligence at the Sugarcane and Bioenergy Industry Union (Unica), Luciano Rodrigues, the recovery can be taken as an example that neo-industrialization is possible.
There are currently 345 production units throughout Brazil, with a greater concentration in the center-south of the country. In the cycle from April 2023 to March 2024, corresponding to the sugarcane harvest, the sugar-energy sector generated US$ 19.8 billion in foreign exchange, occupying fourth position in the agribusiness exports list.
According to data collected by Unica, the gross value moved through the chain exceeds US$ 100 billion, with a Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of approximately US$ 40 billion, equivalent to around 2% of Brazilian GDP. “We went through a period of crisis back there, which lasted until 2015, and many plants closed. Since then, the country has structured some important policies for the sector that resulted in this change in the scenario. It is proof that well-structured policies boost the economy”, says Rodrigues.
Among the measures, the first was the pricing policy, which began to be guided by the price of international oil, which gave more predictability to the sector, according to him. “Followingly, in 2017, we had the publication of the National Biofuels Policy, RenovaBio, which operated from 2020, starting to allow the sale of decarbonization credits (Cbios) generated by sugar cane. It’s a small credit, but it set an important goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions,” he said.
RenovaBio came at a time when the sector was on the verge of a new crisis due to the loss of 80 million tons of sugarcane due to a historic drought in the center-south of the country. In 2022 and 2023, recalls Rodrigues, there was good productivity in the field, resulting in a historic sugarcane crushing record last year. 654.4 million tons were processed, 19.3% more than the 548.6 million tons in the 2022/2023 season. For this year, he projects a harvest slightly smaller than the record, but above previous ones.
Rodrigues assesses that the year started with lower prices, especially for sugar, but sees the scenario as far from being chaotic. “The sector is expanding. We have had sugarcane plants opened, investment expansion in the agricultural area and considerable expansion in the industrial area in the last three years, due to the production of corn ethanol. Five years ago, the ethanol content of cereals was practically zero. This harvest, it will represent around 20% of the total,” he says. In March, the Coruripe plant opened a plant to produce sugar, in Limeira do Oeste, in the Triângulo Mineiro.
The focus on the green economy of the Nova Indústria Brasil Program, launched by the government, is linked to two important public policies for the sugar-energy sector, according to Rodrigues. The Fuel of the Future project, a government initiative endorsed by Parliament, brings the possibility of increasing the level of ethanol mixing in gasoline and biodiesel in diesel oil, in addition to proposing decarbonization targets in transport.
Bet on actions focused on sustainability
Luciano Rodrigues highlights that the Mover (Green Mobility and Innovation) program, an initiative to encourage the automotive industry to achieve fleet decarbonization targets, brings a fundamental point for the sector.
From now on, these incentives will also be calibrated by the use of fuels with lower carbon emissions per km driven, paving the way for greater consumption of biofuels. Rodrigues states that the sugar-energy sector is already committed to zero deforestation.
“Every company that is in the RenovaBio program has to monitor production and assess sustainability. These are public data and validated by external auditing. If a farm with a thousand hectares has a single hectare deforested, even if it is legal, the farm is out. More than 90% of ethanol production complies with RenovaBio and has an audited carbon footprint. We know, in each production unit, who is producing with environmental efficiency”, he says.
The digitalization of agriculture is part of this process, at a time when it reduces the application of pesticides, according to the director of Unica. “Instead of applying it to the entire area, there is a drone that only applies it where it is needed. Our fleet of machines has telemetry. With this, we were able to reduce the use of these machines in production and harvesting. These are some examples of advances, but we still have the disadvantage of cost. International production has a lower cost than Brazil can offer”, observes Rodrigues.
The time when sugarcane was harvested using fire, which often went beyond the sugarcane fields and into forests and crops, is increasingly distant. Currently, some plants maintain projects aimed at protecting bees, in order to guarantee the coexistence of apiaries and honey producers with agricultural production.
These insects are responsible for pollinating more than 90% of native plants and 75% of crops, ensuring the conservation of biodiversity and food security.
Unica’s Sustainability Manager, Renata Camargo, explains that the projects developed by the plants comply with current legislation, with the adoption of appropriate management techniques, and go further. “The projects range from safety measures in the aerial application of agricultural pesticides to the registration and monitoring of apiaries and meliponaries. With the use of technology, new communication resources and socio-environmental responsibility actions, the plants are promoting the harmonious coexistence and preservation of bees,” she says.
Renata says that, in recent years, Unica has developed actions with associated plants to encourage good coexistence with producers of organic food and other crops around the plants. The search for sustainable production is not a recent development for the national sugar and alcohol sector.
In 2017, Unica worked directly on the creation of the regulations for the Technical Directives of the Greener Ethanol Agro-Environmental Protocol, in partnership with the government of the State of São Paulo.
The document established guarantees of sustainability in the sugarcane production chain, including the total elimination of burning as a pre-harvest agricultural method and good practices in the use of pesticides in the State’s sugarcane fields.
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