Cooperatives in the Brazilian Sugar Industry, 1945–80

Although Brazil struggled to export sugar in the early twentieth century, the country re-emerged in the 1980s as the largest exporter of cane sugar and ethanol in the world.  My paper examines the basis for this renewed dominance by focusing on the emergence of agri-business in the sugar industry from 1945 to 1980.  I argue that agricultural cooperatives were a critical part of modernizing the industry and promoting new vertically integrated business structures, but that they represented only elite producers.  I compare the business practices of two sugar cooperatives in Brazil and elucidate the role of the state in supporting cooperatives and the continued dominance of particular elites.