12/02/2008 10h03
Bioenergy and the future of the Brazilian ethanol
Gazeta Mercantil - 12/02/2008
The president of the ETH Bioenergia, a company of the Odebrecht group, engineer José Carlos Grubisich, in an interview published in Gazeta Mercantil - under the headline "ETH studies new acquisitions and going public" (11/12. page B-11)-, provided the instructions of how the behavior of the companies be in this crisis period should be. Engineer Grubisich, who comes from a great experience in Braskem, at no moment showed exacerbated triumphalism and notwithstanding that he did not give signs of discouragement ahead the current and future hard times we are going to face. Thinking that we are going through a "small wave" is underestimating the reality of the facts. I have always warned, in other articles published by Gazeta Mercantil, about the several bottlenecks the sector will have to face and solve, among which are: a) the lobby of the oil companies and producers of the expensive American corn ethanol, which rules the line of subsidies for the cereal and defends the taxation of the Brazilian ethanol at US$ 0.54/gallon; b) creating an international standard for ethanol, just like that from the fossil products; and c) creating a strong mark for our energetic, like "Juan Valdez", for the Columbian coffee. Nevertheless the enormous domestic success of our ethanol, its international acknowledgement is still very far. We need to have permanently active marketing. When asked about how he assessed "the moment for the Country and for the sugar and alcohol sector", Grubisich answered: "Well, the crisis has arrived". It is obvious this situation will lead to concentration in the sugar and alcohol sector". Like in many other sectors, only those who work at the large scale will survive, those who have capital, efficient infrastructure and good logistics, such as, for example, Vale.
