The choice for irrigated fruit growing has proven to be an excellent option for the region of the São Francisco River Valley in Brazil’s Northeast region. And not only for the income generated for the producers, but also for creating jobs.
Studies by the extinct Superintendence for the Development of the Northeast (Sudene) show that this sector is the one that has the lowest cost for job generated, when compared to other sectors in the economy.
One hectare of irrigated land in the São Francisco Valley costs today, in average, US$ 10,000 to the public authorities. For a grape crop, five people per hectare are needed, which costs US$ 2,000 per job generated.
The automobile industry, for example, takes in at least US$ 47,400 per job generated; the pharmaceutical, US$ 42,400; the petrochemical, US$ 38,600; and steelworks, at least US$ 15,600.
As well as generating jobs at a low cost, irrigated fruit growing causes positive consequences in the social aspect. One of the most obvious is keeping man in the fields.
It is estimated that there are 400,000 employed workers in irrigated agriculture in the São Francisco Valley. In another situation, this contingent would have already migrated to the northeastern capitals or cities in the Southeast of Brazil.
Such a great mass of hired people also created a pretty organized union movement. Currently there are in the region 10 unions acting in the cities involved with irrigated agriculture. Together, they have won social benefits that are not very common in the interior of the Northeast region of Brazil.
“Here, almost the entirety of the workers are registered. Transportation is free and safe, made in buses. No one may be transported in the back of trucks. In the farms, there are masculine and feminine clothes and everybody has individual safety equipments,” tells the president of the city of Petrolina Rural Workers Union, Manoel Moreira.
Farmers
The strength of fruit growing in the São Francisco Valley has also made appear a significant rural middle class. Calculations made by the Vale Export, cooperative of producers in the region, show that a small farmer, exploiting six hectares of grapes, may reach annual revenues of US$ 125,000.
Estimating a profitability of 30%, this fruit producer would have a monthly income of about US$ 3,300, which is quite significant for the region.
This middle class ends up imposing a demand for more qualified products and services. The effects of this can already be seen at the Valley’s financial center: the sister cities of Petrolina and Juazeiro.
The first one located in the state of Pernambuco and the latter in Bahia, are separated only by the São Francisco River, an obstacle overcome by a bridge 50 years ago.
One of the sectors growing the most in the region is civil construction. Luxurious buildings are being built by the river shores in Petrolina. One of them, called Morada do Rio, has 250 square meter apartments and a panoramic elevator.
“We find it easier to sell A or B standard units. The target audience are farmers, university level public sector employees and the medical class,” explains Audísio Venâncio, director of construction company Construtora Venâncio, on of the five largest in the Valley.
The constructor’s statement shows another segment in plain expansion in the Valley. Petrolina and Juazeiro have become a significant medical hub in the interior, with specialized clinics and hospitals coming up every year.
Services such as computerized tomography or complex interventions like organ transplants are a reality in that region, called the ‘sertão’ (backland) in Brazil. Medicine will be one of the courses offered by the Federal University of São Francisco, institution already registered in the Federal Official Gazette. The physical installations are already being built.
California
The mayor of Petrolina, Fernando Bezerra Coelho, compares the experience in the São Francisco Valley with what happened in California, in the United States.
“At the end of the gold cycle, in the 1930s, California became the poorest union in the North American federation. A very strong investment in irrigation was then made. Soon after came the universities, and with them, technology. Today, California is amongst the richest of the American states,” says the mayor.
In spite of the evident benefits, Brazil still invests shyly in irrigated agriculture. In the country there are 2.9 million irrigated hectares, which corresponds to 6.4% of the total cultivated surface of 45 million hectares. It is estimated that the irrigation potential surpasses 30 million hectares, which could double national agriculture production.
According to the International Management Institute, organization that advises the FAO, countries like Mexico are already in a much more advanced situation than ours in what concerns using up irrigation soil.
In that country there is a public irrigation project that increased from 200,000 hectares to 8.3 million hectares of irrigated are. This in just over 50 years.
The most populated countries in the planet, China and India, solidly invest in irrigation due to its unique capacity of creating jobs in the rural areas, reason for which they manage to keep 80% of their population away from the urban areas.
China has the largest irrigated area in the world, with 50 million hectares and launched an ambitious program planning to irrigate one million hectares per year.
Anba – www.anba.com.br
]]>The São Francisco River Valley, in the Northeast region of Brazil, is considered one of the best regions in the world to plant grapes. The reason: it practically doesn’t rain.
It is because rain during the harvest may crack or make the grape go sour. Since there is only the possibility rain between December and March, it’s possible to produce practically the whole year round in the Valley.
In producing regions where the climate is temperate, like the southern Brazilian state of Rio Grande do Sul, or South Africa, Chile, Argentina, New Zealand, California and Europe, it is only possible to produce once per year, in a short period of two months. In the Valley, manage even up to two and a half cycles per year.
This good duo between the climate and grape planting has generated also a new activity in the region. The Valley, especially the cities of Lagoa Grande and Santa Maria da Boa Vista, is becoming an important wine hub of the country.
Currently, as well as grapes, about 7 million liters of fine wines are produced per year over there, which represents 23% of the Brazilian production. The whole of Brazil produces 30 million liters per year and imports another 30 million liters of fine wines.
About 27 years ago, the oenologist from the south of Brazil Jorge Garziera was invited to travel to the Northeast to develop projects for table grapes. Some 14 years later was born the first wine from the São Francisco, the Boticelli.
“I planted the seed of an old dream, which is now yielding fruits through implementing the wine production hub. We currently have seven winegrowing plantations producing high quality wines (some having received international awards),” says the oenologist.
Another five already have the intentions protocol to start producing. Graziera invested US$ 2.5 million to launch his own brands, Garziera and Carrancas do São Francisco.
With the profit margin offered, however, in natura grape production is still more attractive. The fruit is changing the Valley’s farmer’s profile. More than half of the production is responsibility of the small properties.
Having to work with new agriculture techniques, these producers have taken in the concept of rural businessmen. This is the case of the couple André Lira Machado, 38 years old, and Adriane Pinto de Sá Machado, 36.
In 1993, they left Recife, capital city of Northeastern state of Pernambuco, to work in the grape farms in the region. With their savings and a loan from the bank of the Northeast, Banco do Nordeste, they purchased 18 hectares of land and started their careers as fruit producers.
Today, their production is of 400 tons of grape per year. They also produce 150 tons of mango. Their revenues reach US$ 209,600 per year.
“We got together with another seven small producers and settled an exporter, Néctar Agrícola. We managed to export 220 tons this year,” celebrates André.
The entrepreneur states that direct exports are a lot more attractive. “In the internal market, one kilo of grapes is sold for US$ 0.54. If we sell it to an exporter, the money is ensured, but it won’t be more than US$ 1.13 the kilo. Exporting it directly we can reach up to US$ 1.51 for the kilo of the same grape. It is a great difference,” he explains.
Anba – www.anba.com.br
]]>Brazil’s fruit producers reached the end of 2004 with record exports worth US$ 370 million, the equivalent to 851,000 tons. The performance represents an increase of 10% in value and 5% in volume in relation to 2003, according to the Brazilian Fruit Institute (Ibraf).
The forecast is that external sales in the sector may have a 20% increase in quantity shipped in 2005.
The losses suffered by the papaya, grapes, melon and mango cultures because of climatic problems were compensated by the good performance of apples.
Last year, the product’s external sales yielded US$ 72.5 million, with an increase of 92% over the US$ 37.8 million revenue in 2003.
In terms of volume, the increase was of 112%, with shipments of 153,000 tons, against 76,400 tons in the previous period.
Last year, the Canadian government authorized the importation of Brazilian fruit without additional (post-harvesting) sanitary treatment. In the official message to the Ministry of Agriculture, the Canadian authorities demand treatment only for apples, a procedure that is already being tested.
According to the Brazilian Agriculture Ministry’s international affairs advisor, Gilson Westin Cosenza, the Canadian decision opens a new market for Brazilian producers and exporters, mainly of mangos, grapes, papayas, and melons, the production of which has been growing in recent years, stimulated by international trade.
Brazil is responsible for 2% of world fruit production and ranks first in papayas, the exports of which rose 140% between 1997 and 2001, when sales, chiefly to the United States and the European Union, reached US$ 22.8 million.
Grape exports have also increased. 20.6 thousand tons were sold abroad in 2003, as against 3.7 thousand tons in 1997. Mango exports, for their part, jumped from 22.2 thousand tons in 1997 to over 128 thousand tons in 2003, with earnings exceeding US$ 70.9 million.
Cosenza observes that prospects are also good for melon exports, which rose from 98,690 tons in 2002 to 149,758 tons in 2003, with earnings of US$ 58.3 million.
ABr & Anba
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