DO ENGENHO PARA O MUNDO? A PRODUÇÃO DE RAPADURA NO NORDESTE: CARACTERÍSTICAS, PERSPECTIVAS E INDICAÇÃO DE POLÍTICAS

Abstract

The paper analyzes the main features of scraping production, a typical activity of small producers in the countryside of Brazil’s Northeast, which has managed to survive despite its marked traditional technological and managerial standards. It departures from the idea that the support to such local activities can both create competitive advantages and expand markets. Firstly, it evaluates the sector’s present situation together with its potentialities and market tendencies. It stresses that the sector can be fostered with technological improvements, market reorientation, associative arrangements and supporting policies. It also drafts lines of policies that may contribute for the sector’s dynamism, which would be important to invigorate Northeast’s backward regions and create employment.