Brazil Candidate Warms to Ethanol

NEW YORK (DTN) -- The Union of Sugarcane Industry Association, Brazil's largest trade group for sugarcane and ethanol producers, appears to be warming toward an environmentalist who is threatening to topple Dilma Rousseff as president of Brazil in next month's election.

UNICA said in a news release that its president, Elizabeth Farina, was one of the country's agribusiness leaders who attended a meeting Friday (8/29) with Marina Silva, a 56-year-old former minister for the environment under former President Luis Inacio Lula da Silva about 10 years ago.

This is Silva's second run for the high office. She ran for the presidency as a Green party candidate in 2010.

According to the Associated Press, the latest poll shows Rousseff trailing Silva by 10% a month before the presidential election set for Oct. 5.

The UNICA news release said Farina presented Silva with a document reaffirming its commitment to restoration and preservation of the environment, and raised issues regarding the benefits of sugarcane production.

The document provided updates on the state of the country's sugar industry and "criticized the lack of public policies to address the situation that has negatively impacted the sector since 2009, and suggested actions that can be taken to reverse the situation."

The Associated Press as well as other local reports said Silva has moved closer to the agribusiness industry in recent months and no longer sees the industry as an enemy to the environmental cause.

She has adopted the pro-industry policies from her late running mate Eduardo Campos who died in a plane crash last month.

George Orwel can be reached at george.orwel@telventdtn.com

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