Organização da indústria: estudos de caso na cadeia produtiva do etanol do Rio Grande do Sul

Abstract

A world conjecture shows an increasing interest about biomass products that can be used in fuel production. This is connected to the search for alternatives that allow us to face the expected oil shortage and the obtaining of energy sources that reduce the impact of human action in the environment. The biomass fuels present positive features regarding its gas emission, possibilities of expanding cultivation and they contribute to carbon retention. Brazil is the greatest sugar-cane-producing country in the world and the second greatest ethanol-producer, following only the United States. This performance is due to the climate, to the land available and to the existing techniques. In the State of Rio Grande do Sul, the culture is not much expressive, with short area dedicated to it, and local ethanol production answering to only 2% of demand, with remaining being imported from other States. The local agrarian reality is mostly formed by small producers connected to family agriculture, with small land and production, being the opposite to what happens in the other regions of the country, when the typical organization of this industry is based on large refinery and monoculture of sugar cane. The cooperatives that act, or try to act in this industry in the state adopt two different ways to action, with levels of production in very inferior scales in relation to those practiced in the other regions of Brazil. The first one obtains its maintenance from the production and purchase of ethanol directly to the market in an action scale of larger volume and practices according to the paradigms of this industry. The second one is feasible from a mixture formed by ethanol to self-consumption and purchasing, food, varied cultures from agriecological and systemic doctrines with income generation to producers and community. This work has carried out case studies in four cooperatives Coopercana, Cooperbio, Cooperfumos and Cooperger that have identified that this type of organization have positive effects to the acquisition of better production scale, making feasible the access to resources, better costs of negotiation and acquisition of purpose economics by small producers. The adoption of methods such Zeri and others connected to agriecological practices is seen as essential in projects of three organizations of those mentioned above but still there are not assessments that can measure the impact of those methods in the result of the operations, and whether they can obtain the expected economical results.