São Paulo – Sugar manufactured by the Coruripe plant, headquartered in the state of Alagoas, in northeast Brazil, is already present in seven Arab countries: United Arab Emirates, Syria, Saudi Arabia, Morocco, Tunisia, Egypt and Algeria. The company’s first shipments to Middle Eastern and North African countries were made in 1994, and sales should continue growing in coming years.
“With each new crop, the Coruripe plant seeks to increase its sugar and ethanol production and exports, but all our sugar is sold by means of trading companies, therefore we do not get in touch with end consumers,” says Liliana Soutinho, in charge of the trade department. Sugar is the plant’s flagship export product, and the leading importing countries are Russia, Bangladesh and India.
Founded in 1925 in the municipality of Coruripe, in Alagoas, the plant has been property of the Tércio Wanderley Group since 1941. The group’s activities include sugar, ethanol and energy production, at four different units. In addition to the main plant, the company has three other branches in the municipalities of Iturama, Campo Florido and Limeira do Oeste, all in the state of Minas Gerais. The enterprise currently accounts for roughly 7,000 direct jobs.
According to information supplied by the company’s trade department, Coruripe is the largest sugar and ethanol manufacturing company in the Brazilian North and Northeast, and owns approximately 36,000 hectares of land. Out of those, 28,000 are used for sugarcane cultivation, and the remainder comprise environmental protection areas. “The branches are also industrial complexes of utmost importance to the regions they are located in,” says Liliana.
Currently, the company is celebrating its good performance in the last few crops. During the 2007/2008 season, the main plant alone milled 2.82 million tonnes of cane, 25.5% more than in the previous crop, having reached a total of 5.69 million bags of sugar, and produced 68.87 million litres of ethanol and 117,240 megawatts per hour of electric power. In total, the Tércio Wanderley Group crushed 10.60 million tonnes of cane.
In the 2008/2009 crop, the company milled 11.83 million tonnes of cane, produced 17.65 million 50-kilogram bags of sugar, and 485 million litres of ethanol.
“The group’s 2009/2010 crop results were solid and equivalent to the previous crop, in spite of the world crisis, which occurred at that time,” says Liliana. Over 11.20 million tonnes of cane were ground, generating 17.82 million bags of sugar and more than 360 million litres of ethanol.
Contact
Usina Coruripe Açúcar e Álcool
Site: www.usinacoruripe.com.br
Telephone: (+ 55 82) 3217-2122
*Translated by Gabriel Pomerancblum
