Territorial aspects of the sugar and ethanol sector in Brazil - from 1948/49 to 2006/2007
The present text seeks to identify map and analyze the processes of territorial occupation by sugarcane production in Brazil since the end of the 1940's. The study is based on historical data of regional and state sugar and ethanol production. During this period, three expansion events took place. Brazilian sugarcane production started in the Northeast region, occupying the humid coastal areas and sparse humid spots in the interior. Therefore, northeastern Brazil can be considered the country's first sugarcane production area and its inward migration was the crop's first expansionist drive. In the second expansion the crop moved to the Southeast region, in the 1950s. Sugarcane crop data for 1978/79 and 2006/07 show two distinct movements, directly linked to each other: on the one hand, the continuous process of sugarcane territorial decentralization and, on the other, sugarcane expansion into areas previously occupied by grain crops, specially soybeans. This was a new territorial expansion, now in direction of Brazil's Mid-West. This is understood as the third expansionist movement. A fourth and still tentative movement can be detected towards the North region. Sugar and ethanol production represents a traditional and oligarchic sector in Brazil; its expansion is accompanied by the concentration business ownership, under way in the ethanol industry, which is tending to come under the control of large, multinational agribusiness companies and the international financial capital