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Sugar Cane Sector in Brazil: labor indicators and migration Márcia Azanha Ferraz Dias de Moraes ESALQ/University of Sao Paulo/Brazil May 2008
Sugar Cane Sector in Brazil: laborindicators and migration
Márcia Azanha Ferraz Dias de Moraes
ESALQ/University of Sao Paulo/Brazil
May 2008
The importance of the Brazilian sugar-cane sector
!Brazil is the world’s largest producer of sugar cane and
sugar and the 2nd producer of alcohol
!It is also the largest exporter of sugar and alcohol
! Alcohol use represents over 50% of the fuel for light
vehicles (total fleet: 22 million vehicles).
! Flex-fuel cars correspond to 86% of the sales of new
units (end of 2007).
!In 2006/07: 426 millions tons of sugar cane were
processed at 376 sugar and alcohol mills
!Harvest area: 19,2 millions acres
Main economic agents of the sector
Industrial Sugar and Alcohol Production
Fuel Distributors
Gas Stations
Alcohol
Exports
Sugar Cane Production
• 50 thousand sugar
cane producers
• 376 Sugar
Mills/Alcohol
Destileries
• 32 thousand sell both alcohol
and gasoline
• Prices: on the free market
• 160 Distributors
•The gasoline alcohol mixture can
only be made by distributors• 1.03 Billion galons in 2007
Fonte = MAPA – MME – MDIC - 2005
532 th employees
• 567
thousand
employees
Rain forest
Pantanal
Atlantic forest
Sugarcane
Fontes: IBGE (Vegetação) e CTC (Cana)
The Sugar Cane Sector in Brazil: Overview
To produce:
- 5.8 billiongallons ofethanol
- 30 million tonsof sugar
- Area: 19.2millions acres
- 0.9% of thearea of Brazil(2,100 millionsacres)
- 0.4% of thearea of crops
Ethanol and Sugar Mills Location - 2007
Source: Ministry of Mines and Energy – Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Food Supply - 2008
NORTH-NORTHEAST REGION
78 INDUSTRIAL UNITS:• SUGAR MILLS 9• ETHANOL PLANTS 20• ETHANOL AND SUGAR 49
92% of the ethanol production87% of the sugar production51% of the sugar cane’s jobs
8% of the ethanol production13% of the sugar production49% of the sugar cane’s jobs
Operating Sugarcane Mills
Sugarcane Mills underconstruction
SOUTH-CENTER REGION
298 INDUSTRIAL UNITS:• SUGAR MILLS 6• ETHANOL PLANTS 100• ETHANOL AND SUGAR 192
Jobs in Sugar cane
production (2007): 532,263
Per capita GIP NE regionUS$ 2,258
Per capita GIP SE region US$ 6,354
Per capita GIP SouthRegion
US$ 5,425
Per capita GIP NUS$ 2,987
Per capita GIP CWUS$ 5,990
The migration of sugarcane employees
Per capita GIP SP state US$ 7,384
Data Survey of socioeconomic information in the PNAD database
•PNAD - National Household Sample Survey
• Carried out by the Brazilian Institute for Geography and
Statistics – IBGE (Federal Government )
• All statistical analyses take into account the expansion
sector associated with sample observation, as provided by
IBGE
Evolution of the Number of Employeesand of the Sugar Cane Production
Source: Prepared based on data provided by PNAD (several years)
0
100000
200000
300000
400000
500000
600000
700000
800000
900000
1000000
19
81
19
82
19
83
19
84
19
85
19
86
19
87
19
88
19
89
19
90
19
91
19
92
19
93
19
94
19
95
19
96
19
97
19
98
19
99
20
00
20
01
20
02
20
03
20
04
20
05
20
06
Number of Employees Sugar Cane Production
861 themployees
532 themployees
247 mi ton426 mi ton
Sugarcane: Number of registered and free lancersworkers Brazil, NNE region and SP state - 2006.
Source: Prepared based on data provided by PNAD.
74,2
65,0
91,8
25,8
35,0
8,3
0,0
10,0
20,0
30,0
40,0
50,0
60,0
70,0
80,0
90,0
100,0
BRASIL NNE region SP state
Formal Informal
Total 532,263
Total 263,291
Total 170,326
Source: Prepared based on data provided by PNAD.
Sugarcane: Average Schooling - 2006
3,7
2,5
4,85,1
0,0
1,0
2,0
3,0
4,0
5,0
6,0
BR NNE CS SP
Av
era
ge
Sc
ho
oli
ng
It should be highlighted that the average schooling is very low:
-77.3% of the workers in sugarcane sector in Brazil have up to 4 years of
schooling
- 29.4% (that is, about 155 thousand workers ) are illiterate
Conclusion• The migration of sugarcane workers in Brazil occurs
from the poorest region of the country, the North-Northeast region, to Sao Paolo state, the richest and themost important producer of sugarcane in Brazil
• The ban of sugarcane in this state is leading to amechanical harvesting of greencane
• There will be an important layoff of workers, with anegative impact in the labor market and in some statesof the Northeast region of Brazil
