In three to five years foreigners will be grinding 25% of the Brazilian sugarcane. The forecast was made by Datagro president, Plinio Mario Nastari, who opened this Monday, October 19, the 9th International Datagro Conference on Sugar and Alcohol, in São Paulo, in southeastern Brazil.
The company provides services for analysis of the sector and promotes the event yearly. According to Nastari, foreign capital is already responsible for the grinding of 16.6% of the sugarcane in the country. Nastari said that a change is being identified in the sector profile, with larger and larger companies, and this process includes foreign capital.
According to the Agroenergy Production secretary at the Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Supply, Manoel Vicente Bertone, there is no news of Arab participation in mills, but he believes that it is possible to attract the capital of the region. "They are strong in the energy sector," said Bertone, regarding production of oil.
The government of Brazil has been making an effort to take ethanol technology to countries in Africa and Bertone believes that the Arabs could also invest in the production of ethanol in Africa, a continent that also includes Arab nations. Bertone was one of the speakers at the event.
The effort to take ethanol production technology to other nations is part of an attempt to make the product into a commodity and, thus, create not just new producers, but also to open markets.
In this respect, the Industrial Technology secretary at the Ministry of Development, Industry and Foreign Trade, Francelino Lamy de Miranda Grando, announced that Brazil agreed, last week, in partnership with the environmental agency of the United Nations (UN), to transfer ethanol technology to Kenya and Senegal. This kind of activity should be developed, from now on, in partnership with the UN.
The operations vice president at Dedini, José Luiz Olivério, who was present at the event, as a participant, stated that one of the problems for implementation of the mills in Africa is financing. Dedini produces equipment for mills and provides full services for implementation of the company.
According to Olivério, at the mill inaugurated this year, in Sudan, Africa, the financial matters took around one year to be solved. In another recent project on the continent, he pointed out, it took eight months. In both cases, the funds did not originate in Brazil.
Grando agreed that it is necessary for the government of Brazil to participate in the financial aspects too. "It requires joint operation with the government (and the private sector)," he said. According to the Ministry of Development secretary, while Brazil is the only producer of ethanol, it will also be the only market.
"We have been traveling from country to country, ministry to ministry, government to government," said Grando, regarding the government initiatives to expand ethanol production to other regions of the world.
Anba
