Almost 90% of sugarcane production for ethanol is harvested in South-Central Brazil,
over 2,500 km (1,550 miles) from the Amazon. The remainder is grown in Northeastern
Brazil, about the same distance from the Amazon’s easternmost fringe. That is roughly
the distance between New York City and Dallas, or Paris and Moscow. There is very little
production of sugarcane in the Amazon region (less than 0.2% of Brazil’s total production)
that is processed at three mills, out of more than 400 industrial plants throughout
Brazil that were built in the early 1980s, at a time when the military government provided
fiscal incentives to set up industrial facilities in this region to supply local markets. Without
subsidies, these mills would not have been economically viable since the Amazon
region does not offer favorable conditions for commercial sugarcane production. Current
and future expansion is anticipated to continue in South-Central Brazil, primarily on
degraded pastures. The sugarcane industry strongly condemns any sugarcane expansion
on sensitive biomes such as the Amazon rainforest or wetlands, and supports President
Lula’s proposed legislation to establish an agro-ecological zoning for sugarcane,
prohibiting any future sugarcane production in the Amazon, Pantanal (Brazilian Wetlands)
or in any type of native vegetation, including native Cerrado. This bill establishes
92.5% of Brazil’s national territory off-limits for sugarcane farming and processing.