In Brazil, the planting of sugarcane (raw material of the mills) began in São Vicente, in 1522, brought from Madeira Island, by Martim Afonso de Souza. However, it was in Pernambuco that it flourished, finding ideal conditions for its development in the massapê humid lands. In 1553, Duarte Coelho Pereira also brought from Madeira Island, the so-called Crioula sugarcane, which for three centuries was the dominant variety cultivated in Pernambuco. There are indications that there was previously sugarcane crop in the lands of Itamaracá.
In the early 19th century, Crioula sugarcane was replaced by Caiana sugarcane, when the Portuguese brought this variety from French Guiana and introduced it here. Only then were hybrid varieties introduced from the Antilles, India, and Indonesia.
Sugarcane is planted in the forest area of Pernambuco – in the so-called sugarcane area – for almost five centuries. The cultivated area has about 12k km2, is situated near the Atlantic Ocean, has rich soils for agriculture, without threats of droughts, and rivers are perennial.
In the beginning, the sugar mills must have been moved to human traction, like the flour houses. Then they evolved into animal traction (ox and mares) and water mills. It was only from the 19th century that steam-powered mills would be introduced in Pernambuco and there would be a revolution in the trade and sugar industry, since in Europe beets began to be used in sugar production, offering a better-quality product to the consumer market.
Brazil had to make changes in its production, building railways and implementing modern sugar mills.
In the last decades of the 19th century, some richer and more enterprising owners improved the technical conditions of their mills, with the implementation of machines to produce crystal sugar. These modern mills would be called central mills and power plants.
The central mills had no difference from the technical point of view of the plants, but from the economic point of view: they generally belonged to a society, had no land, and did not develop agricultural activities.
From 1871, a gradual change in the sugar agroindustry occurred in Pernambuco, with the decay of the old Banguês mills (which produced a dark, brown sugar) and their replacement by central mills and plants. Just few Banguês mills managed to survive until the second half of the 20th century.
The sugarcane area of Pernambuco has already had a good railway network, composed of the railways of the former Great Western and the extensions built by the mills for the transport of sugarcane. However, from the mid-1960s, the railways were abandoned being replaced by highways.
The first plant established in Pernambuco was that of São Francisco da Várzea, whose first milling took place in 1875. Pernambuco has already had more than 100 plants. Currently, however, there are only about 38, some of which are paralyzed or disabled.
ALPHABETICAL RELATIONSHIP OF PLANTS IN PERNAMBUCO
Água Branca*
Aliança*
Aripibú*
Bamburral*
Bananal*
Barão de Suassuna
Barra*
Beltrão*
Bom Destino*
Bom Dia
Bom Jesus
Bosque*
Brasil*
Brejo*
Bulhões
Cabeça de Negro*
Cachoeira Lisa*
Camurim Grande (Santa Inês)*
Capibaribe*
Carassú (depois Central Barreiros)
Catende
Caxangá
Central Barreiros
Central Nossa Senhora de Lourdes*
Central Olho D´Água
Coelhas*
Colégio*
Conceição dos Milagres*
Condado*
Crauatá*
Cruangi (antes Genipapo)
Cucaú
Cursay*
Cuyambuca (MoçaBonita)
Desespero*
Desterro
Dois Irmãos*
Engenho do Meio*
Espírito Santo*
Estreliana
Firmeza*
Floresta (Usina Pinto)*
Frei Caneca
Freixeiras*
Gigantes*
Goiana
Gravatá*
Ipojuca
Jaboatão*
Jaguaré*
Javunda*
José da Costa*
José Rufino*
Laranjeiras
Liberato Marques*
Limoeirinho*
Lustosa*
Mameluco*
Manoel Borba*
Maria das Mercês*
Massauassu*
Matary
Moreno*
Muribeca*
Mussú*
Mussumbú*
Mussupe*
Mussurepe*
Nossa Senhora Auxiliadora*
Nossa Senhora da Vitória*
Nossa Senhora das Maravilhas
Nossa Senhora do Carmo (antes Sta. Pânfila)
Nossa Senhora do Desterro
Nova Conceição*
Pedroza
Penderama*
Peri-Peri*
Perserverança*
Petribú
Pirajá*
Pirangi*
Pocinho*
Porto Alegre*
Progresso Colonial (depois Jaboatão)*
Pumaty (antes Central Bom Gosto)
Regalia*
Ribeirão*
Rio Una*
Roçadinho*
Salgado
Sant`Anna d`Aguiar*
Santa Filonila*
Santa Flora*
Santa Rita*
Santa Teresa
Santa Terezinha
Santa Terezinha de Jesus*
Santo André
Santo Inácio*
São Félix*
São Francisco da Várzea*
São João da Várzea*
São José (antiga Coelho)
São Salvador*
Serra-Azul*
Serro-Azul*
Sibéria*
Sibiró Grande*
Timbó*
Timbó-Assú*
Tinoco*
Tiúma*
Trapiche
Trapiche do Cabo*
Três Marias*
Treze de Maio*
Trincheiras*
Ubaquinha*
União e Indústria
Uruaé*
Vicente Campelo
* Plants deactivated, paralyzed, incorporated or other.
Recife, July 3, 2003.
sources consulted
ANDRADE, Manuel Correia de. História das usinas de açúcar de Pernambuco. Recife: FJN. Ed. Massangana, 1989. 114 p. (República, v.1)
GONÇALVES & SILVA. O assucar e o algodão em Pernambuco. Recife: [s.n.], 1929. 90 p.
MOURA, Severino. Senhores de engenho e usineiros, a nobreza de Pernambuco. Recife: Fiam, CEHM, Sindaçúcar, 1998. 320 p. (Tempo municipal, 17).
how to quote this text
GASPAR, Lúcia. Sugarcane Mills in Pernambuco, Brazil. In: PESQUISA Escolar. Recife: Fundação Joaquim Nabuco, 2003. Available from: https://pesquisaescolar.fundaj.gov.br/pt-br/artigo/usinas-de-acucar-em-pernambuco/. Access on: Month. day, year. (Ex.: Aug. 6, 2009.)