1 - The background

Summary

Private investors now come to the region, initially prospecting. The visit of Rockefeller, the experience of the Sampaio Ferraz, the grapes of Molina, the onion farmers along the river, the pioneering of the Coelhos … are positive indications that “the Valley is good business.” … In Petrolina alongside the Schumpeterian empire of the Coelhos … other investors begin to establish themselves. … The former governor of Pernambuco, manly leader of the clan, welcomes and orients these investors almost all of whom are his friends: from the South, the Northeast, and the outside. Rockefeller sends him letters and postcards. Pignatari lunches in the colonial home of Dona Josefa Coelho after having landed his executive plane … en route to the copper mines in Caraíbas. The executive president of Heinz – the great agroindustrial complex in California … writes him for information about land. … Besides the “big shots” of national and foreign industry … Nilo Coelho maintains frequent contact with Robert McNamara, president of the World Bank. … The agroindustrialists begin to appear. … The Simonsens plant alfalfa on the Bahian side. … Gustavo Coleço… begins experiments with national and foreign varieties of sugarcane. … Heinz of California wants to plant tomatoes and process them in order to penetrate the internal market and to export. … Pizzamiglio, São Paulo retailer, installs plantations of grapes and tomatoes; the Japanese of Paraná are in fruit; the Bentonite group of Campina Grande … wants to produce essential oils; the Pascuale Hermanos are in fruit; Prado Franco expects sugar production along the Bahian side.