Crise da economia sucroalcooleira de Alagoas: suas causas, novos fatores e reorganização do espaço no início do século XXI

Abstract

Always linked to the structure of the State and to the international market, the culture of sugarcane was the first economic activity of Colonial Brazil. In the beginning, its production was mainly located on the coast of the Northeast. Since the 17th century, the sugar sector in Alagoas has started to incorporate productive innovations in agriculture, in the energy source and in machining - from banguês mills to mills. From the twentieth century, new phases of the sector allowed its continuity in the economy and its transformation into a sugar and alcohol sector. The deregulation of the sector, in the 1990s, with the commercial opening, promoted the reorganization of production, but caused the closure of some plants and, mainly, the distilleries. This enabled a new period of land concentration and the production of sugar and ethanol, a process that started to be commanded by a few groups. It is believed that the 2008 crisis, added to the climatic conditions and the loss of ethanol competitiveness are the causes of the crisis that the mills are currently facing, where the sugar and alcohol sector in Alagoas is retracting with the reduction of exports and the closure of plants . In addition, the production in Alagoas competes with that in the Southeast, which is over-invested, establishing a new technical level in the culture and machining of sugar cane, which hardly Alagoas producers are able to keep up with. In this sense, the new organization of space (society and nature) in view of the possible decline of the sugar and alcohol sector and the rise of other agents in the economy of Alagoas, are the object of the research. For the development of this work, a bibliographic and data survey was carried out in governmental and non-governmental bodies, as well as the survey of information in widely circulated newspapers. The investment of landowners in new segments of agribusiness, such as forestry, soy, coconut and corn, was observed to recompose profits. On the other hand, the growth of trade and Other services, emerges in the Alagoas economy as new protagonists.