Brazil as a big player in the global ethanol market

Abstract

This article discusses the history of ethanol in Brazil and the evolution of its industry, focusing on the following issues: the advantages that the country has for productivity and commercial expansion; the bottlenecks that threat the growth of the sector’s competitiveness in relation to the global biofuel market; the variables of the international scenario, such as trade and diplomatic aspects, and the diffuse forces that challenge the sector; and, finally, the projections for Brazilian ethanol. The objective of this work was to draw a retrospective and to analyze the current panorama of the domestic and international production and commercialization of ethanol, to identify complex and sensitive variables that interfere in Brazil’s strong avant-garde position in relation to the ethanol market, besides gathering the prospects for Brazilian ethanol in the world biofuel scenario. Bibliographic and data surveys were carried out, using the concept of the path dependence analytical tool for the knowledge of the historical and growth process of the sector. In addition to the successful past, a plurality of factors of multiple dependencies was found to condition the future of the national sector in the face of a cosmopolitan trade agenda for biofuels. Prospects about the future are optimistic for Brazil.