“…80 thousand hectares were burned in sugarcane areas and sugarcane regrowth areas…”
José Guilherme Nogueira is the CEO of the Organization of Sugarcane Farmers Associations in Brazil – Orplana, graduated in agronomy from Unesp, with a M.Sc. degree in marketing from USP and an MBA from Fundação Getúlio Vargas.
José Nogueira, CEO at Orplana
AgriBrasilis – Are the recent fires in sugarcane fields in the State of São Paulo a result of criminal activity?
José Nogueira – We are still awaiting the investigations that are being carried out by the State Secretariat of Public Security and the Federal Government.
AgriBrasilis – Is there still a risk of new fires happening in the region?
José Nogueira – We are working together with the Crisis Office of the Governor of the State of São Paulo to mitigate any other type of fire that may occur, despite the cold temperatures having arrived and the Ribeirão Preto region having recorded rainfall, the weather is expected to continue dry and hot for the next few days and the concern still exists.
AgriBrasilis – What are the estimated losses? How many hectares were burned and which regions were most affected?
José Nogueira – 80 thousand hectares were burned in sugarcane areas and sugarcane regrowth areas. It is estimated a loss of more than US$ 89.02 million because of the burning of regrowth areas, burning of sugarcane, etc.
AgriBrasilis – How will this affect sugar and ethanol prices?
José Nogueira – We noticed a reduction in sugarcane yields of around 50%, due to this loss of biomass that ended up being set on fire. With this, we already have direct impacts on the prices of ethanol and sugar and on the sugarcane crops in the next season.
AgriBrasilis – Will there be financial help from the Government? When?
José Nogueira – The support of the Federal and State Government is extremely important at this time. The package of actions worth US$ 19.58 million to support farmers who were severely impacted by the recent forest fires will help. However, if there are other incentives for purchasing water trucks, reducing interest rates for this purpose, it will also help farmers a lot.