Sustainability nowadays is an essential word in the formulation of programs or initiatives through which one intends to access new markets, mainly the markets of developed countries, for which unquestionable competitiveness is required. Brazilian ethanol, a product of great success, nowadays is part of a government program that involves several ministries and public organizations, which, due to its enormous strategic importance, is coordinated by the Office of the Presidency of Brazil, and quite often President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva himself directly participates in the program.

Evidently, this success can be measured using innumerous parameters, in such a manner that currently, when companies’ and sugarcane planters’ profitability is quite low or even non-existent, success may actually be doubted. However, when one thinks of building the future on solid bases, seeking sustainability in social, environmental and economic terms, along with access to markets, while taking advantage of the product’s so called “externalities”, current profitability becomes a mere “detail”.

Obviously, this is an important detail, which must, however, be contrasted with the activity’s future prospects, in the firm belief that current difficulties will be overcome by the relentless work efforts of all parties dedicated to this program. The Ethanol Summit very well reflected this environment of optimism, even in view of the adversities, which we all considered temporary.

Even as a result of these adversities, we insisted on focusing on the importance of achieving the undispensable social and environmental sustainabilities, so as to continue to also deserve the much needed and little mentioned political sustainability. Little mentioned these days, perhaps because we clearly take it for granted.

Governmental support is only required when we lack it, and the government of President Lula has not omitted itself in developing the Agroenergy Program, which has actually become a parameter for initiatives in developing countries, in regions suited for sugarcane production. Ethanol became an instrument of international relations, under the certainty that to conquer new markets, additional partners are needed for the production and for showing that this product may be a factor for development, generation of income and the creation of jobs in needy regions, in that respect.

Investors, entrepreneurs and farmers believed and continue to believe in the future of energy generated from sugarcane. Actually, they do more than that. They believe in business generated by sugarcane, the source of biomass that is giving signs of enormous economic potential, whether in the form of ethanol as first generation fuel, as sugar, as ethanol for the chemical industry, as biopolymers, as ethanol used in Diesel cycle engines, as a co-generator of energy using sugarcane bagasse, as second generation ethanol, or even as diesel obtained from sugarcane.

This extraordinary potential of sugarcane, already so well exploited with the use of so little of Brazil’s productive lands, will increasingly generate more wealth and provide the country enormous environmental gains, especially if we are able to improve our competitiveness and adequately show our sustainability. Governmental initiatives to that end, which are practically all in progress, are essential.

The issue of rural labor, which must be dignifying, complying with the already adequate Brazilian legislation and allowing that direct labor be increasingly directed to less tiring activities; the governance of land usage through the zoning of areas for expanding sugarcane plantations, whose technical work has been concluded and is now in the phase of political decision making; the definition of reference standards and the initiative to set up a certification program that at the same time caters to the interests of Brazil and of our clients; efforts to grow the market and the supply of biofuel, a theme that has led us to an intensive mobilization in African and Latin American countries; the setting of a legal benchmark that provides more legal safety, allowing an increased flow of investments, also in activities as yet only intended, such as pipelines for transportation of the product and energy distribution networks compatible with the industry’s expansion plans in areas previously considered appropriate for the activity, in accordance with the industry’s expansion zoning.

Obviously, this short list of important items does not cover all the challenges we must face. I, in the capacity as the representative of the Minister for Agriculture, Livestock Breeding and Supply, Reinhold Stephanes, as well as Carlos Cristo, representative of the Minister for Development, Industry and Foreign Trade, Miguel Jorge, demonstrated our knowledge of these needs and our enthusiasm about these challenges.

We showed our satisfaction with the possibility of achieving economic, social and environmental objectives with a single program. Apart from us, important other members of the Federal Government, such as the Minister Chief of Staff, Dilma Rousseff, at the Ethanol Summit, and representatives of several Brazilian ministries and governmental entities have done likewise.

We have undertaken efforts to contribute to the activity’s success, through very well coordinated initiatives with the private sector, in line with the orientation of President Lula and all ministries involved. With all this, what we lack is to consolidate success by achieving indispensable profit, based on economic feasibility, which, if not given, can put at risk the adequate evolution of a winning project.

To open markets, intensify our relationship with the beneficial competitor, which is U.S.-made ethanol from corn, to wait until the industry’s painful consolidation process is concluded, until growth of supply and demand are better coordinated, until long-term relations or contracts between producers and distributors are established, assuring that the activity is less risk-prone and possibly providing investors higher returns, are all prevailing challenges.

From producers of agricultural produce, we evolved to become producers of energy! Ethanol and electric power generated from sugarcane bagasse are sold in different ways. While the former is an agricultural produce, the latter is energy. Whereas the former is sold at a “by the minute” price, the latter is contracted in energy auctions, just as one contracts the energy of hydroelectric or nuclear plants.

However, both require long-term investments, whose future profitability depends on factors difficult to predict. Both have strategic importance, requiring certain future supply guarantees, safe supplies, without which the State too cannot feel safe. In view of our efforts to open up foreign markets, which will require differentiated logistics, along with long-term contracts with companies in third countries, we must ask whether the necessary regulatory mark is expected to assure better conditions in this respect.

How should one handle the percentage stability of anydrous ethanol in gasoline over time, how should one regulate the charge for using pipelines yet to be built, pro-viding investors and users assurances, how should one avoid possible embarrassments in export business deals, in the event that the supply will, for whatever reason outside the control of the producers, be insufficient?

Many issues are yet to be better assessed within this program of undeniable success. Such issues will require that initiatives by the State be coordinated and compatible with the interests of producers and investors. The Ethanol Summit’s closing panel gathered people of different ranking and views, but everybody completely involved and committed with the sugarcane sector. Success is not just a fact, a continuous wish. It must also be a commitment of all of us, to justify this remarkable effort by Brazilian society, which in future will surely distinguish it even more than it does today. Success is what we enjoy today and it is what we aspire for the future of ethanol.