Desenvolvimento territorial e a ressignificação da produção microcervejeira: uma análise da região imediata Novo Hamburgo-São Leopoldo, RS

Abstract

The history of beer in Brazil, shows itself as a very important sector of the domestic economy, being responsible for approximately 1,6% of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP). This importance is followed by the formation of an productive oligopoly established in the 20th Century by three big companies, which holds 98% of the market. Against the current of this process, there is a recent microbrewery movement that aims to, by several strategies, embed itself in the market and survive. On spatial terms, the referred movement is bigger in the South and Southeast regions of Brazil, the Rio Grande do Sul is currently the second state that has the most number of microbreweries that are registered in the Ministério de Agricultura, Pecuária e Abastecimento (MAPA) in the country. In this context, the main goal is to analyze the process of ressignification of the microbrewery in the Região Imediata Novo Hamburgo-São Leopoldo, seeking to comprehend the dynamics created by this movement and the relation with the territorial development. We choose this spatial cutting because, in the present-day context, the region of Vale do Rio dos Sinos is a region that holds a large number of microbreweries in the state. In the methodological basis, the research are split steps: The first step concentrated in a bibliographic review; The second consist in define the spatial cutting of the research; the third apply to the gathering of data along with official sources and the spatialization of the same; and the last step, will be conducted a field research and application of a semi-structured interview with the producers of the region. By means of all these moments, it is seeking to understand the nuances of the microbrewery movement in Região Imediata Novo Hamburgo-São Leopoldo, its structure and the territorial development that is produced in this process. As preliminary results of the research, we can analyze that the state of Rio Grande do Sul along the 19th Century and in the first half of the 20th Century was one of the main foundations on the production of beer in Brazil. Following this period, we see the decay of the sector, followed by the injection of capital deriving from the Southeast region of Brazil. We also like to include as preliminary results that the southern state initiated in the 90’s a productive renovation (inspired by the great microbrewery movement in the USA) that has as characteristics the production in a micro scale and local enterprises, some regions stands out, like the Vale do Rio dos SinosRS.