Migration theory in the domestic context north-south labor movement in Brazil.
Jones, Terry-Ann
INTRODUCTION
According to the theory of the New International Division of Labor,
access to employment is not only based on the skills or education of
individuals. Some jobs are targeted toward particular members and groups
of the population. Certain jobs, most often the menial, strenuous, and
low-paying, are reserved for those who, in theory, have the fewest
skills and lowest levels of education. However, in reality it is those
with the most limited resources and even more limited access to these
resources who find themselves in these difficult forms of employment
that offer them little compensation. In more industrialized states of
Western Europe, the United States, Canada, and Australia, among others,
these jobs are often filled by immigrants, especially those who have
recently arrived and are undocumented. The jobs vary from domestic work
to agriculture and meatpacking, among other sectors.
With its rapidly growing economy and wide range of industries,
Brazil has a need for low-skilled, low-wage workers. Brazil is a world
leader in ethanol production, and has been engaged in the widespread use
of ethanol since the mid-1970s. (1) With increasing fuel prices
worldwide, there is a growing demand for alternative sources of energy.
Biofuels, including sugarcane-based ethanol, are considered by some
people to be a viable alternative (Goldemberg 2007). Consequently,
ethanol production has increased in both the United States and Brazil,
the world's two leading producers. In the former, ethanol is mainly
produced from corn, while in the latter sugar cane is the main source.
In addition to global concerns regarding energy availability, there is a
high local demand for ethanol within Brazil, driven by three main
factors. First, ethanol is 35% less costly than gasoline. Second,
ethanol is taxed at 9 cents per liter, in comparison to the 42 cents per
liter charged for gasoline, also influencing the overall cost. Finally,
flex fuel vehicles, which use both ethanol and gasoline, have become
increasingly economical in Brazil, encouraging their popularity (Luhnow
2006).
In Brazil, the incentive to produce more sugar cane has resulted in
an increased demand for labor on sugar cane plantations and in sugar
mills. In Brazil's main sugar-producing regions of the center-south
states, the labor demands are filled by migrants. However, in this case
the migrants are not foreigners, but Brazilians from the lower rungs of
the socioeconomic ladder. In some cases the migration is permanent and
the workers live in slums, land reform settlements, and other poor
communities. However, many of the workers are temporary labor migrants
who migrate seasonally from northern and northeastern states such as
Maranhao, Bahia, Alagoas, Para, and Minas Gerais. Although these workers
are Brazilians traveling and working in their home country, they face
many of the challenges that migrant workers in other countries face,
including discrimination, meager wages, and inhumane working conditions.
Migration is a hot topic in academia, and a range of theories has
arisen to explain, discuss, or otherwise dissect the process of
migration. Among them, several approaches have emerged as accepted,
dominant theories of migration. Some of them explain the reasons for
migration, while others explain how and why the process continues once
it has begun. It has also become accepted among scholars of migration
that these theories do not operate independently of each other, but are
all complementary. However, these models all emphasize international
migration. Within the field of migration studies, international
migration is certainly dominant. Furthermore, rural to urban migration
dominates discussions of domestic migration, further marginalizing
migrants such as Brazilian labor migrants who have very different
experiences in their movement from poor urban settings to agricultural
spaces. This article proposes an alternative way of perceiving internal
migration, one that considers the similar plights that they share with
international migrants. Case studies of Campos dos Goytacazes in the
state of Rio de Janeiro and Guariba in the state of Sao Paulo are used
to illustrate the complexities of domestic labor migration in Brazil.
Information from these two regions is based on interviews conducted
there from summer to fall of 2007. The following section describes the
major theories of international migration, emphasizing the ways in which
these theories are applicable to domestic migration, particularly in the
context of Brazilian labor migrants.
THEORIES OF INTERNATIONAL MIGRATION
For the last several decades, beginning perhaps with Everett
Lee's (1966) pioneering "push-pull" theory of migration,
scholars have attempted to explain the causes and trends of
international migration through a range of theoretical perspectives.
Several theories have emerged as dominant and generally accepted
approaches to international migration, some of which explain the reasons
why and the ways in which the process begins, while others explain the
perpetuation of migration. A consensus has developed that these
approaches are not mutually exclusive, but are complementary and
applicable to different types of international migration. The models of
neoclassical economics, new economics of migration, segmented labor
market, and world-systems theory are the dominant models that explain
the initiation of the migration process, while networks explain its
continuation. These approaches are discussed below.
Neoclassical Economics
The neoclassical economics approach to international migration is
based on the premise that individuals will migrate in order to improve
their standard of living. This approach recognizes the imbalance between
the supply and demand of labor and capital such that there is an
abundance of labor in developing or migrant sending countries, while
capital is more readily available in developed or migrant receiving
countries. According to this theory, migration will continue as long as
this imbalance exists. Massey et al. (1994) use the example of Puerto
Rican migration to the United States mainland to support the claims of
the neoliberal economics model, although they agree that it does not
adequately explain fluctuations in the international movement of people.
The case of Puerto Rican migration to the United States represents an
unusual case, as it is not considered international migration. Although
the move from the island to the mainland involves linguistic and
cultural adaptation, Puerto Ricans hold U.S. citizenship. Similarly,
this model could also be applied to domestic migration in the contexts
in which the unequal distribution of wealth is geographically based, as
in the Brazilian case.
The neoclassical economics model of migration could certainly be
used as an explanatory tool for migration from Brazil's
northeastern to center-south states, as the former represents an area
that is abundant in labor, while the latter boasts higher wages and a
greater availability of resources. Brazilian sugar cane cutters in the
center-south earn an average monthly income that is about 15-22 percent
higher than the monthly wages in the northeast (Romero 2000). For
example, in Pernambuco in the northeast, sugar cane cutters earn a
median monthly salary of US$167, while in Sao Paulo they earn US$195
(Kenfield 2007). Consequently, the migrant flow moves in a north-south
direction, from the labor-abundant regions to the capital-abundant
areas, despite the obstacles or difficulties.
Although domestic migrants in Brazil do not face the same legal
issues as international migrants, or the linguistic and cultural
concerns of Puerto Ricans in the United States, they are nonetheless
migrants, leaving the familiarity of their homes and settling in
sometimes unfriendly locales. However, one of the critiques of the
neoclassical model is that, by assuming that migrants are individual
rational actors who make migration choices based on the propensity for
upward socioeconomic mobility, the model has significant limitations and
ignores a range of other considerations.
New Economics of Migration
Like the neoclassical approach, the New Economics of Migration
assumes that there are global economic imbalances that enable people to
make rational choices in order to maximize their socioeconomic
potential. However, this approach does not assume that the individual
makes these choices independently. Rather, the inclusion of the nuclear
or extended family, or in some cases even the community, facilitates the
sharing of both the costs and the benefits of migration.
Community and familial relationships are central to the migration
flows of Brazilian sugar cane workers. Male workers interviewed in
Guariba indicated that their quality of life improves in several ways
when they are accompanied by their partners or spouses. Most
importantly, the partners are able to share the household duties,
enabling the male workers to focus solely on their paid labor. While
most female sugar cane cutters face the double burden of household and
paid work, they are also in some cases aided by the extended family,
most often in the form of child care. As such, this model is a useful
lens through which to view domestic labor migration in the case of sugar
cane workers in Brazil, although as with the neoclassical model, there
remains an assumption that individuals and family members are rational
actors.
Segmented Labor Market
The segmented or dual labor market approach to migration is based
on the assumption that there are jobs that have, over time, become
labeled as migrant jobs. Occupations such as domestic and agricultural
work, for instance, often receive a majority of foreign-born workers. In
California, for example, 95 percent of farm workers in 2000 were foreign
born, with 100 percent of newly arrived workers also foreign born. An
estimated 50 percent of this work force is believed to be undocumented
(Martin 2001: 3).
The structure of sugar cane labor in Brazil is such that cane
cutters, who engage in arduous manual labor, fall to the bottom of the
hierarchy. This level of labor is usually reserved for migrant workers.
While other positions in the industry are by no means trivial, the
"indoor" positions, such as those inside of the factories, are
typically reserved for permanent workers, or those who are native to or
have settled in the communities in which the sugar mills are found.
Workers are recruited from the less affluent states of Brazil's
northeast to work in the cane fields of the southern and central states.
That migrant labor work in the fields while local labor work in the
factories, suggest the type of segmented labor market that this theory
describes. This type of labor organization was observed in both Campos
dos Goytacazes and Guariba, where the overwhelming majority of the sugar
cane cutters are migrants from the northeast.
World-Systems Approach
As in the cases of the other major theories of international
migration, the world-systems analysis is also applicable to domestic
migration in the Brazilian context.
According to the world-systems approach to international migration,
since the sixteenth century there has been a global division of states
and regions into a core, which is abundant in capital, a periphery,
which is abundant in labor, raw materials, and consumer markets (Massey
et al. 1993:444), and a semi-periphery that combines elements from core
and periphery. Migration, according to this approach, is the inevitable
result of the problems that are created by capitalist development.
Although this may not be immediately apparent, the world-systems
approach to migration is appropriate because Brazil, as a semiperipheral
region, is divided geographically along socioeconomic lines, the north
being considerably poorer than the south.
Although world-systems analysis emphasizes global divisions, a
similar structure exists within the large semi-peripheral geographic
space that is Brazil. While natural resources and raw materials are
found throughout the country, the North has long been an area with an
abundance of labor. Furthermore, during the sixteenth century, which
marks the inception of the global division of core and periphery states,
Brazil's northeast was the primary area for the development of the
sugar cane plantation economy, and the accompanying importation of slave
labor. As such, labor migration will continue to take place from the
north to the south of Brazil as long as there remains an unequal
distribution of wealth, resources, and cheap labor between the regions.
The effects of the abundance of labor in Brazil's northeast are
compounded by the fact that the region, once the main sugar cane growing
area, has been largely desiccated. Sugar cane remains prominent in the
region mainly because of the historical dependency on this commodity.
However, production in the center-south is more widespread, intensive,
and efficient, as the figures below indicate.
Networks
Networks represent a key component of the migration process, as
they affect migrants' decisions regarding their destination locale.
Information about the destination is channeled to prospective migrants
through those who have already made the journey (Thomas-Hope 2002). As
such, the networks, which are comprised of prospective migrants,
migrants, and returned migrants, among others, are involved in the
decision-making process. Furthermore, these networks are crucial to
migrant adaptation, as networks facilitate the processes of securing
employment and housing. Networks may consist of family, friends, or
others, but are most closely linked to geographic space. Migrants
typically form or join networks with those from their town, region, or
country.
Within the context of Brazilian migrant sugar cane workers,
networks are fundamental to the migration process. All of the migrant
sugar cane workers interviewed in both Guariba and Campos dos Goytacazes
noted that they were informed of the employment opportunity through
someone they knew, most often a relative or friend. Consequently, there
is a spatial pattern that is consistent with Levitt's (2001)
findings in her study of Dominican migrants in Boston. Levitt emphasizes
the value of migrant networks and ethnic enclaves in her study of
transnational migration between the Dominican Republic and Boston.
Specifically, she underscores the relevance of networks in the decision
to migrate to a particular city, as her research was centered on
migrants from the Dominican town of Miraflores. In this case, the
overwhelming majority of Mirafloreno migrants choose Boston as their
destination city. Similarly, migrant sugar cane workers interviewed in
Guariba were exclusively from the state of Maranhao, and the majority of
them were from the city of Timbiras.
Another way in which the role of networks is articulated within the
context of Brazilian sugar cane migrant labor is through the role of
labor contractors or recruiters, known in Brazil as empreiteiros, or
more commonly but derogatorily as gatos. Empreiteiros are typically from
the same community, city, or state as the workers they recruit, as this
fosters a more trusting relationship. Playing essentially the same role
as labor recruiters in California's agricultural labor market, many
empreiteiros begin as workers, become supervisors, and are eventually
promoted to the multifaceted position of recruiting workers (Ortiz
2002:402). In addition to recruiting, empreiteiros also transport
workers to the work sites and supervise in the fields. Many scholars
argue that empreiteiros exploit workers (Pereira 1992:174), hence the
common use of the term gatos--literally, cats--to describe them as
deceptive, untrustworthy, and even traitors to their kin. However, other
scholars, though few, observe the benefits of the empreiteiros, who play
a mediating role between seasonal agricultural workers and their
employers. Rezende and Kreter (2001), for example, argue that
empreiteiros facilitate communication between the two parties and reduce
labor costs for employers. As such, they play an important role in the
producers' economic productivity. In either case, empreiteiros,
considering their role in facilitating housing, transportation, and
employment for migrants, are key players in the networks of migrant
sugar cane workers.
DOMESTIC MIGRATION
In 1969, Fischlowitz and Engel argued that there were two main
reasons for domestic migration in Brazil. The first is the unequal
distribution of land, which remains concentrated in the hands of
relatively few individuals and families by means of the perpetuation of
the latifundia system of large-scale agriculture. Their second reason
represents the characteristics of migrant sending regions, which they
describe as having, "alarmingly low income, underemployment,
undernourishment, ill-health and illiteracy." Migration flows, they
argue, reduce population pressures in the less developed areas and
encourage economic expansion in more developed areas (Fischlowitz and
Engel 1969:41-42). Although much has changed in Brazil since 1969, it
remains among the world's most unequal countries (Birdsall
1998:78), and some of the poor conditions that Fischlowitz and Engel
describe remain evident today. The latifundia system remains a reality
in Brazil, although land reform movements have gained much support
(Wolford 2004). Migration flows in Brazil continue to be driven by
inequality, in particular regional inequality. Figure 1 below
illustrates Brazil's regional income inequality. Although these
approaches do not directly refer to domestic migration, they are
certainly applicable. Internal migration is often omitted from migration
theories, which tend to emphasize movements across borders. However,
internal migration is a prevalent phenomenon that deserves greater
attention. In addition to the millions of people who are internally
displaced because of wars, natural disasters, or other emergencies,
countless others are also migrants in their home countries. While
international migrants have concerns regarding citizenship,
discrimination, and acculturation, their experiences are not as
different from those of domestic migrants as they might initially
appear. Domestic migrants may not share citizenship concerns, but in
some cases such as China, for example, they need authorization to
migrate even within their home countries (Pieke and Mallee 1999).
Domestic migrants also face difficulties acculturating, particularly in
large, culturally and socio-economically divided countries such as
China, India, and Brazil. There are further instances in which citizens
become foreigners in their birthplaces, warranting a greater theoretical
consideration. South Africa, in which the majority, indigenous
population was reduced to foreign status under apartheid, is one
example. Palestine, in which another population with an historical
memory of citizenship has become restricted to particular areas, is
another.
INEQUALITY IN BRAZIL
Brazil's northeastern region accounts for 18.3 per cent of the
country's land and 28.5 per cent of its population. (2) However,
this region provides only 13.5 per cent of the national income and has a
per capita income of US$1,836. In contrast, the southeast contains 10.9
per cent of the national territory and 42.7 per cent of the population.
This region produces 58.1 per cent of the national income and has a per
capita income of US$5,443 (Azzoni 2001:135). The sharp contrast between
economic conditions in the two regions is reflected in the higher
unemployment rates in the northeast. In the northeastern city of
Salvador, for example, the unemployment rate was 12.1 per cent in July
2008 while the unemployment rate in the southeastern city of Sao Paulo
during the same period was 8.3.3
[FIGURE 2 OMITTED]
SUGAR CANE PRODUCTION IN BRAZIL
As the approaches to migration discussed above suggest, Brazilian
migrants move from areas where there are fewer employment opportunities
to areas where the prospects for employment are greater. Migrant sugar
cane workers travel from their homes in the poorer Northeastern region
to the Southeastern and Central regions, where about 80 percent of
Brazil's sugar cane is produced. Although the Northeast has
historically been the primary sugar cane region, desertification has
rendered much of the area unsuitable for agricultural production.
Because of the region's historical dependence on sugar cane
production, the Brazilian government has continued to invest in sugar
cane production in this area. However, only about 20 percent of the
country's sugar cane is produced in the Northeast. Table 1 and
Figure 2 below show the proportion and concentration of sugar cane
production in the two dominant regions.
SUMMARY
While migration is an increasingly salient topic globally, the
process is too often assumed to be uniform. On the contrary, migrant
experiences vary widely, depending on such factors as the type of
migrant (temporary, permanent, student, highly skilled, undocumented,
for example); the origin and destination regions, countries, and cities;
and the types of employment opportunities that they are offered, to name
a few of these factors. While the Brazilian sugar cane migrant
experience has some unique qualities, it is comparable with other
examples of temporary labor migration. For example, West Indian
agricultural workers who travel seasonally to the United States face
hardships such as family fragmentation, discrimination at the
destination, and harsh living and working conditions.
The harvest period in Central and Southeastern Brazil lasts on
average six months, from about May to November, depending on weather
conditions and variations in crops. During this period, workers, mainly
men, leave their Northeastern homes and travel to the center-south,
where they live on the plantations or in the neighboring towns, often in
tenement-style dwellings. They spend this period working in the fields
cutting sugar cane. Research conducted during the harvest season of 2007
indicated that the most urgent concerns among migrant workers include,
among other problems:
1. Long hours of work under difficult conditions
2. Sub-standard living conditions
3. Inadequate nutrition
4. Health concerns pertaining to working conditions and poor
quality of drinking water.
5. Work-related injuries
6. Discrimination in the communities in which they live
Ortiz (1981: 97) found similar concerns as he gathers from other
studies that, "... the work day varies from ten to four teen hours
... the large majority of workers are illiterate ... health problems are
constant and frequently severe ... most workers' families live in a
three- or four-room shack that they do not own ... nutritional
shortcomings are widespread ... salaries are consistently below the
legislated minimum wage ... and women are routinely paid less than
men."
[FIGURE 2 OMITTED]
There is an absence of a model of migration that addresses the
nuances of domestic labor migration. Domestic migration can be placed
within the paradigms of some of the dominant approaches to the study of
migration, as there are many similarities between the patterns and
processes of domestic and international labor migrations. While these
models are applicable to domestic labor migrants, a theoretical approach
to migration that considers the disparities that exist within countries
and the
consequent flows of labor in this context is lacking. This article
proposes a broader interpretation in migration theories that accounts
for the movement and experiences of domestic labor migrants.
The comparative approach to sociological and geographic studies,
among other disciplines, emphasizes the relevance of context. In
migration studies, the importance of context has been well documented,
and studies on migrant communities and their experiences illustrate the
myriad ways in which migration is experienced by different groups.
However, the bulk of the migration studies deals with international
migrants. While international migrants have the unique experiences of
being uprooted (or uprooting themselves) and being transplanted (or
transplanting themselves) into a foreign society, their understanding of
the process does not differ much from that of domestic migrants,
particularly those in large countries where regional social, economic,
and cultural differences are evident.
REFERENCES
Aparecida de Menezes "Migration Patterns of Paraiba
Peasants," Latin American Perspectives, Vol. 31, No. 2, 2004.
Azzoni, Carlos, "Economic Growth and Regional Income
Inequality in Brazil," in Annals of Regional Science, Vol. 35, No.
1, 2001, pp. 133-152.
Bales, Kevin, Disposable People: New Slavery in the Global Economy,
Berkeley: University of California Press, 2000.
Barbosa, Luiz C., "The World-System and the Destruction of the
Brazilian Amazon Rain Forest," Review of the Fernand Braudel
Center, XVI, 2, Spring 1993, 215-40.
Birdsall, Nancy, "Life Is Unfair: Inequality in the
World," in Foreign Policy, No. 111, Summer, 1998, pp. 76-93.
Bolling, Christine and Nydia R. Suarez, "The Brazilian Sugar
Industry: Recent Developments," Sugar and Sweetener Situation and
Outlook, September 2001.
Castro de Rezende, Gervasio and Ana Cecilia Kreter,
"Agricultural Labor Legislation and Poverty in Brazil: A
Transaction Costs Approach," Rev. de Economia Agricola, Sao Paulo,
Vol. 54, No. 2 (2007), p. 121-137.
Ferreira, Joaquim Bento de Souza, Filho and Mark Jonathan Horridge,
"Economic Integration, Poverty and Regional Inequality in
Brazil," RBE, Vol. 60 No. 4, 2006.
Fischlowitz, Estanislau and Madeline H. Engel, "Internal
Migration in Brazil," International Migration Review, Vol. 3, No.
3, 1969.
Goldemberg, Jose, "Ethanol for a Sustainable Energy
Future," Science, Vol. 315. no. 5813, February 2007, pp. 808 - 810
Gunder Frank, Andre, Capitalism and Underdevelopment in Latin
America: Historical Studies of Chile and Brazil, New York: Monthly
Review Press, 1969.
Jepson, Wendy, "Private agricultural colonization on a
Brazilian frontier, 1970-1980," Journal of Historical Geography
Volume 32, Issue 4, October 2006, pp. 839-863
Kenfield, Isabella, "Brazil's Ethanol Plan Breeds Rural
Poverty, Environmental Degradation," Americas Policy Program
Discussion Paper, March 6, 2007, retrieved from http://americas.
irc-online.org/am/4049.
Lee, Everett S., "A Theory of Migration," in Demography,
Vol. 3 No. 1, 1966.
Levitt, Peggy. The Transnational Villagers. Berkeley: University of
California Press, 2001.
Margolis, Maxine, "The Ideology of Equality on a Brazilian
Sugar Plantation," Ethnology, Vol. 14 No. 4, 1975.
Martin, Philip, "Farm Labor in California: Then and Now,"
Center for Comparative Immigration Studies Working Paper Series, 2001,
retrieved from http://repositories.cdlib.org/ccis/ papers/wrkg37/
Massey, Douglas, Arango J; Hugo G; Kouaouci A; Pellegrino A; Taylor
JE, "An Evaluation of International Migration Theory: The North
American Case," Population and Development Review, Vol. 20 No. 4
1994, pp. 699-751.
Massey, Douglas S., Joaquin Arango, Graeme Hugo, Ali Kouaouci,
Adela Pellegrino and J. Edward Taylor, "Theories of International
Migration: A Review and Appraisal," Population and Development
Review, Vol. 19, No. 3 (Sep., 1993), pp. 431-466
Ortiz, Sutti, "Laboring in the Factories and in the
Fields," Annual Review of Anthropology, Vol 31 (2002), pp. 395-417.
Pereira, Anthony W. "Agrarian Reform and the Rural
Workers' Unions of the Pernambuco Sugar Zone, Brazil
1985-1988," The Journal of Developing Areas, Vol. 26, No. 2,
January 1992, pp. 169-192.
Pieke, Frank N. and Hein Mallee, Internal and International
Migration: Chinese Perspectives, Surrey: Curzon Press, 1999.
Romero, Simon, "Spoonfuls of Hope, Tons of Pain; In
Brazil's Sugar Empire, Workers Struggle with Mechanization,"
New York Times, May 21, 2000.
Saint, William S., "The Wages of Modernization: A Review of
the Literature on Temporary Labor Arrangements in Brazilian
Agriculture,"
Shields, Gail M. and Michael P. Shields, "The Emergence of
Migration Theory and a Suggested New Direction," Journal of
Economic Surveys, Vol. 3 No. 4, 1989.
Thomas-Hope, Elizabeth. Caribbean Migration. Barbados: University
of the West Indies Press, 2002.
Weeks, John R., Population: An Introduction to Concepts and Issues,
Eighth Edition, Belmont, CA: Wadsworth/Thomson Learning, 2002.
Wolford, Wendy, "Of Land and Labor: Agrarian Reform on the
Sugarcane Plantations of Northeast Brazil," Latin American
Perspectives, Vol. 31 No. 2, 2004, pp. 147-170.
Wood, Charles H. and Jose Alberto Magno de Carvalho, The Demography
of Inequality in Brazil, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1988.
Yap, Lorene, "Internal Migration and Economic Development in
Brazil," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, Vol. 90, No. 1, 1976.
Terry-Ann Jones
Fairfield University
tjones@mail.fairfield.edu
Terry-Ann Jones is Assistant Professor of Sociology at Fairfield
University, with primary teaching responsibilities in the International
Studies Program. Professor Jones is actively involved in the Latin
American and Caribbean Studies and Black Studies programs and serves on
the advisory boards of both. Her areas of research and teaching interest
are in international migration, particularly between Latin America and
the Caribbean and North America. Her previous research compared Jamaican
immigrants in the metropolitan areas of Miami and Toronto, and was
published in her book, Jamaican Immigrants in the United States and
Canada: Race, Transnationalism, and Social Capital, in 2008. Professor
Jones is currently doing research on temporary labor migration in
Brazil, particularly among sugar cane workers who travel from
Brazil's northeast to the central and southeastern regions. The
role of migration as a livelihood strategy among both domestic and
international migrants is central to this research. She received her
Ph.D. from the University of Miami, School of International Studies in
2005
Table 1: Regional Sugar Cane Production
Center-South Northeast
Sugarcane production 75-80% 20-25%
Raw sugar production 60-65% 35-40%
Ethanol production 80-85% 15-20%
Sugar for export 25-30% 70-75%
(Source: Bolling and Suarez 2001)