10/28/2008 08h25
Drought makes Holambra II diversify crops and invest in orange
Valor Econômico 10/28/2008
Flower's Holambra, which is also a producer of grains and cotton, is now an orange producer, too. In Paranapanema, a small city with a little more than 16 thousand inhabitants in the interior of São Paulo, the seedlings have already been planted. It was the best alternative found by the Dutch descendents who have settled the Holambra II cooperative there, in 1960, to dribble the small summer season common in this middle Center-South of the State, where the fruit finds propitious environmental conditions to advance in dry areas, despite the omnipresent sugarcane and eucalyptus expansion, which is another option with many adepts. Different from the original Holambra, located in the region of Campinas, the flowers in Paranapanema were never the main bet, although they are still cultivated in the area. In this municipality, located in a region that 20 years ago was known as the Hunger Valley, the grain crops, with the help of irrigation (expanded after the 1985 drought) were what stimulated the group. Simon Veldt, who has presided Holambra II for 16 years, proudly tells the history, with a heavy accent. He says that, together with the grains, the cooperative took to a today still simple Paranapanema, a hospital, a school, and sanitation, besides other improvements in infrastructure that later were outsourced or transferred to the public administration. It is almost 700 hectares, says Ivan Sanches, one of the 15 cooperated producers who have taken the cause of the orange and started making their yards surround the city. Until the end of December, he affirms, his family will have 48 hectares planted. He explains that today, to compensate the high initial cost of almost R$ 4.8 thousand (US$ 2.2 thousand) per hectare (inflated with the fear of diseases), besides R$ 2.9 thousand (US$ 1.32 thousand) per hectare in the first handling year and R$ 2.8 thousand (US$ 1.27 thousand) in the second, it is necessary to take great care of the phytosanitary safety and efficiency. The yards' income will only appear after the third year, and the total return of the investment comes in the eighth year, little before its necessary renovation. All of this happens with the international market of orange juice in a low, in a situation that makes the São Paulo citric growers complain over and over again at the prices of the fruits that are paid by the companies. Veldt, the president of Holambra II, does not seem be worried. First, because the yards of the cooperated are being formed. And also because the group's idea is not to depend on industries, but to work with the option of supplying for them, selling to the table market, or transforming oranges in juice in their own plant. Installed in the center of Paranapanema, Admar Theodoro Pinto, president of the local Union of Rural Workers, tries to keep himself informed about what happens in Holambra II. And, at first, he believes that orange can be a good option, due to the accelerated rhythm of mechanization of the sugarcane harvest. What he really wants is to create a new settlement for the family agricultural workers of the region, but, meanwhile, he hopes the orange harvest creates jobs for the nearly 2 thousand people who are members of the union. "Holambra II has brought cotton, soy, corn and bean for the region (planted by 55 of the 90 cooperated people, in an area of 28 thousand hectares that are irrigated with pivot). Maybe orange will help us. It is better than sugarcane", he believes. Holambra II, does too.
