Responsiveness and value chain in sugar-ethanol production

Brazil is the world’s major sugarcane producer. In 2018/19, the country will have produced about 47.34 million tons of sugar and 58.8 billion liters of ethanol. Sugar and ethanol are produced in the same production process and the definition of both quantities is pre-established to sugarcane agro-industry. The purpose of this paper is to identify how managers define the production mix of sugar-ethanol in an agro-industry and how this decision adds value to its operations. The results showed that the searched mill adds value to its production through responsiveness and flexibility while orienting the production to sugar and/or ethanol according to the most profitable market during the moment of the decision making