At the headquarters of Dedini in Piracicaba, São Paulo state, José Francisco Davos, director for business development, has found 40 minutes to talk between visits from two foreign delegations, one from the US, the other from Sudan. The visitors are customers and potential clients, come to see the technology that has made Dedini the leading supplier of equipment for sugar and alcohol mills in Brazil.

Brazil’s ethanol surge is only just beginning. Optimists speak of the country as a green Saudi Arabia, whose combination of land, climate and technology could make it the world’s biggest producer of efficient bioethanol.