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With a larger harvest expected for this year, the company expects revenue to increase and is renovating a second factory to start operations in August producing sugar and ethanol.
See what the cooperative says about sugar and ethanol production. Due to a good rainy season this summer, 900 tons of sugarcane should be crushed this year, compared to 834 tons in the previous season. Sales should reach R$ 300 million, said the president of the cooperative, Frederico Paes.
However, the ratio of processed sugarcane to rock sugar and ethanol has changed. “We are concerned about the government's fuel pricing policy. The ICMS reduction in 2022 made ethanol less competitive. On the international market, sugar prices are rising,” he explained. “With this, we will produce 1 million bags of sugar (50 kg each), double what we produced last year, and 25 million liters of ethanol, half of what we will produce in 2022”.
Get to know the sugar and ethanol production cooperative
Coagro has 10.000 registered members, of which 3.000 are active, it is a small producer in the region. Today, the cooperative has a factory called Sapucaia that can process up to 1,5 million tons of sugarcane. After bankruptcy, the unit was leased by Coagro in 2015 for 30 years.
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Now, the cooperative has ended a 15-year lease on another closed plant, Paraíso, which can process up to 800 tons of sugarcane, creating 1.500 jobs during the harvest. “We are investing BRL 43 million in renovating Paraíso, which will benefit producers from Baixada Campista”, he informed.
cooperative entrepreneurship
Before the economic crisis, cooperative entrepreneurship continued to grow. By the end of 2022, the state of Rio had 423 cooperatives in eight different sectors, from the production of goods and services to health and credit. They bring together 340 members, 16% more than the previous year, with revenues of R$ 11,4 billion, according to data from the yearbook organized by the Organization and Union of Brazilian Cooperatives in Rio de Janeiro (OCB-RJ).
Abdul Nasser, director of Sescoop-RJ, which is part of the Education Sector and S System, explains that the impetus comes from the downturn in employment. “If employment is low, people have to accept it. It takes skill, knowledge and resources to do this yourself. Or getting others to do it together, which makes business possible and transforms the economy,” he reported.
In the state of Rio de Janeiro, for example, 15 of the 17 educational cooperatives were born in meetings of teachers from bankrupt schools, he said. Teachers negotiated labor credits to take over the units. “We have free training. For those looking to move forward, we provide step-by-step guidance to determine business viability, create collaborations and plan,” she said.
