Currently, Brazil has 330 million* hectares of arable land, of which 52% is used for livestock, 26% is idle land, and 22% is used for agriculture. Only 1.4%* of all arable land in Brazil is used for ethanol production, and ethanol consumption for the production of I’m green™ bio-based polyethylene represents around 1.7% of total ethanol production, or 0.02% of Brazil's arable land. The availability of land, combined with the possible intensification of livestock farming, makes Brazil a country with room for agricultural expansion. Even in a very optimistic scenario of growth in the production of chemicals from renewable sources, land use for the production of non-food products is likely to continue to represent a small percentage of the total land available. With specific regard to land management for sugar cane production, in the state of São Paulo, where 50%* of the country's sugar cane is grown, legumes are used to fix nitrogen in the soil during crop rotation. As a result, 15 to 20% of sugar cane producing areas are used to grow soya, beans and peanuts, supplying the food market. For more details, visit the website of the Sugar Cane Industry Association (UNICA) at
www.unica.com.br
*Source: IBGE, Conab and UNICA. Data compiled by ICONE and UNICA.