Globalized agribusiness, neoliberalism and territorial vulnerability: analysis of sugarcane industry in Brazil

• Grant number: 19/19082-3
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships abroad - Research Internship - Doctorate
• Start date: February 02, 2020
• End date: March 23, 2020
• Field of knowledge: Humanities - Geography - Human Geography
• Principal Investigator: Ricardo Abid Castillo
• Grantee: Henrique Faria dos Santos
• Supervisor: Antonio Augusto Rossotto Ioris
• Host Institution: Instituto de Geociências (IG). Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP). Campinas , SP, Brazil
• Institution abroad: Cardiff University, Wales
• Associated to the scholarship: 17/15377-3 - Productive regional specialization and territorial vulnerability: local implications of the expansion and crisis of the sugarcane industry in Brazil, BP.DR

Abstract

The purpose of this research internship abroad project is to study the dynamics of globalized agribusiness, structured by the political and economic neoliberalism model, that allows the analysis of recent changes in the sugarcane sector of Brazil. Since the beginning of the 21st century, sugarcane agribusiness has expanded strongly in Brazil, especially in the Cerrado regions, due to the building of new Industrial Sugarcane Plants (ISP) and processes of financialization and centralization of capital. However, since 2010 this sector has seen major difficulties associated with the consequences of the international economic and financial crisis of 2007-2008 and to macroeconomic (low commodity prices, credit restriction, unfavorable fiscal regime, corporate indebtedness) and structural factors (fall of agricultural productivity, rising production costs) which have resulted in an increase in judicial recoveries and bankruptcy of firms. The temporary or permanent closure of dozens of ISP's has resulted in negative impacts in the Sugarcane Agribusiness Productive Regions (SAPR) in economic, social and environmental terms, generating a territorial vulnerability framework. In this sense, concepts such as agro-neoliberalism, regional competitiveness and regional resilience, developed by the School of Geography and Planning's researchers, are very important for the analysis that we are doing in the doctoral research supported by FAPESP (process n° 2017/15377-3). (AU)