Copersucar

Copersucar is a Brazilian cooperative and one of the world's largest producers of sugar and alcohol. The company is based in São Paulo.

The cooperative was founded on 1 July 1959 in order to improve the production and distribution of sugar and by-products such as ethanol. The Brazilian sugar producers at that time were greatly affected by European import restrictions and price erosion from sugar, so a collaboration to tackle the crisis was necessary.

Today, merged from the Brazilian states of São Paulo, Minas Gerais and Paraná in the cooperative 85 companies. Sales in fiscal year 2006/ 07 was 5 billion reals (about 1.8 billion euros ), which was generated half each by ethanol and sugar production.

On October 18, 2013, there was a major fire in the port of Santos, which destroyed the camp infrastructure Copersucar including 180,000 tonnes of sugar. The price of sugar on the commodities markets rose in a row.

Formula 1

The mid-1970s gained notoriety as a sponsor of Copersucar Fittipaldi Automotive, the first Brazilian Formula 1 teams. The collaboration lasted from the 1975 season to season 1979.