Brazil’s cachaça industry thrives but still faces prejudice

Farmer Cid Faria, 61, from Minas Gerais state, had already tried his hand at cattle and fish farming. He moved to Brasília in the early 2000s and discovered his true entrepreneurial vocation once he realized he could make the most of an old gastronomic ion—cachaça.

Eight years ago, he turned a shed in Fercal, a peripheral area of Brazil’s Federal District, into an aguardente production and sugarcane cultivation facility. He, his wife, and children created a family-run micro-enterprise in which they promote the cachaça prata (“silver cachaça”), an artisanal form of the spirit that is white because it is not aged in wood. The taste was a hit. By 2024, production had grown from a thousand to 10 thousand liters a year, in addition to garnering 10 national awards.

Faria is one of the micro-entrepreneurs who have managed to find their way in a thriving sector, despite the stigma attached to the product.

A survey entitled Anuário da Cachaça (the “Cachaça Yearbook”), released Wednesday (May 28), points out that 1,225 new cachaça registrations were made last year alone.

Growth

According to the yearbook, the volume of cachaça production declared in 2024 reached 292.459 million liters nationwide, up 29.58 percent from 2023.

The data cover 7,223 products, which represents a surge of 20.4 percent from the total number of products ed in 2023.

The report, produced by the Ministry of Agriculture in partnership with entities such as the Brazilian Cachaça Institute (Ibrac), also found that all regions of Brazil saw a rise in the number of ed establishments.

Minas Gerais is the Brazilian state with the most registrations, with 501 establishments, followed by São Paulo (179), Espírito Santo (81), and Santa Catarina (73). Ceará showed the highest growth—from 34 in 2023 to 47 in 2024, up 38.2 percent growth.

Employment and demands

Sector representatives used the event to publicize the yearbook to point out that, even though cachaça is a traditional Brazilian drink, it is a distillate that still faces prejudice from consumers and lacks government .

“It’s a sector that generates over 600 thousand jobs, both directly and indirectly. Producers are spread from the North to the South of Brazil,” said Ibrac president Carlos Lima.

These are micro and small businesses, which, producers argue, play a key role in securing a livelihood for people in the countryside.

“It’s a sector that suffers from a high tax burden. All alcoholic drinks should be treated the same way,” he noted.

Another of Carlos Lima’s complaints is that spirits have stricter advertising rules than those with a lower alcohol content, like beer.

“They are produced in rural areas with an all-Brazilian raw material—sugar cane.”