Assessmente of the evolution of Brazil's sugarcane, sugar and ethanol production durng the alst fifty years, as well as of its slnfting spatial pattern after the last World War., Chronological account ofthe industry's main problems covering four sequential periods: World War II and its consequences (1939-1949), attempts of reinsertion in the international sugar markets (1950-1968), trends of sectorial concentration and modernization (1969-1974), and dislocations from sugar to ethanol and vice versa (1975-1989). The article ends with some succint considerations on the ethanol supply crisis of 1990.
