To UNICA members, directors and staff

Dear friends,

I am writing to tell you of my decision to step down from the positions of
President of the Brazilian Sugarcane Industry Association (UNICA), President of
SIAESP (São Paulo State Sugar Producers Association) and President of
SIFAESP (São Paulo State Ethanol Producers Association), which I have held
since July of 2007. First and foremost, let me say that I am entirely at the
Board’s disposal to stay in office as long as may be necessary to ensure an
orderly transition and the proper hand-over of my current duties and
responsibilities.

The various commitments I have been fulfilling in Washington and London this
week – talks at the State Department and the USTR; a lunch organized by the
Brazilian Embassy and UNICA for some 30 U.S. congressmen who supported
us in the process of removing the tariff on imported ethanol; and events with the
Financial Times and the Skoll Foundation – prevent me from delivering this
message personally. For this reason I decided to write you with these brief
thoughts about my decision and the period that is now drawing to a close.

Major changes are always difficult. It was so in 2007, when I decided to interrupt
almost 20 years of a successful academic and consulting career in Brazil and
abroad to take on the challenge of leading the principal sugarcane industry
organization in the midst of a major expansionary cycle. I did this only because I
was absolutely convinced about the strategic importance of sugarcane to the
planet, in the areas of renewable energy, food, sustainability, tackling climate change, developing tropical regions and creating jobs. At UNICA I found a
large, respected and professionally-run organization that already figured as one
of the leading and most efficient of its kind in the country.

I am convinced that we were able to significantly expand the organization’s
areas of activity during these five years thanks to a professional team of
exceptional level, a team that is passionate about UNICA and the issues that
matter to the sector. First of all, our actions were greatly expanded at all
spheres of government, with improved organization and concrete results in the
fiscal, economic, trade, labor, environmental and regulatory areas – the primary
function of trade associations.

Secondly, we greatly enriched our agendas and activities in the areas of
communication, marketing, sustainability, bioelectricity, visitor reception,
corporate responsibility and the production of highly reliable studies and
statistics. We operate successfully within the political and regulatory
environments of the United States and the European Union. Our unprecedented
initiative to open offices in Washington and Brussels has led to a major
achievement that will take some years to be fully and completely appreciated by
the sugarcane industry: the possibility that sugarcane ethanol, today an
environmentally differentiated commodity, can repeat the trajectory of
international success achieved by Brazilian sugar.

In these five years, we have received nearly one thousand delegations from
more than one hundred countries and given thousands of interviews in Brazil
and abroad, so satisfying a huge, repressed demand for reliable information
about our activities. We have developed a fruitful partnership with 18
organizations and companies in the areas of marketing and corporate
communications. Our communication campaigns have received wide
recognition and numerous awards both at home and abroad, the main one being the ABERJE 2011 Prize awarded to the AGORA Project as Brazil’s best
corporate communication initiative for that year. To avoid being repetitive, I shall
mention only the headline programs that highlight the growth of our
communications area: the Ethanol Summit (now firmly established as the
principal global event for discussion of ethanol); the TOP Ethanol Awards;
promotion of ethanol in Formula Indy and Stock Car motor racing; the
Municípios Canavieiros (Sugarcane Municipalities) Project; the Climate Change
Challenge; the Sugarcane Plantation Labyrinth at the 2010 São Paulo
International Auto Show; Agro-Energy in the Course (Agronergia em Curso); the
rebranding of “alcohol” as “ethanol”; events in the Brazilian National Congress
and State Legislative Assemblies; legal and environmental seminars; and seven
active Internet sites attracting more than 60,000 visits per month.

UNICA has advanced in the area of sustainability by creating or enhancing
voluntary programs that recognize the best companies, effectively raising
standards and improving the overall level in the industry. Successful examples
include the São Paulo Agro-Environmental Protocol, which is eradicating
sugarcane burning well ahead of the deadline established in the state law while
making it possible for thousands of hectares within sugarcane plantations to
enjoy permanent environmental protection; the RenovAção Project, which has
retrained 5,000 former sugarcane workers displaced by harvest mechanization
for new jobs within and outside the cane industry; the National Labor
Commitment (Compromisso Nacional Trabalhista), which involves worker
participation to recognize companies that adopt best labor practices; Bonsucro,
which is now the leading global standard for certification of products within the
sugar-energy supply chain, and which has so far been granted to 15 companies
in Brazil; and the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) sustainability report that we
pioneered among agribusiness associations worldwide and that is now incorporated into the daily operations of more than 70 companies in our
industry.

In short, I believe that these have been five years of progress with remarkable
enthusiasm and dedication from our team. There is no doubt that we have
raised the bar in terms of expanding our scope of action, our reputation, our
transparency and our recognition, while at the same time increasing the number
of member companies by about 50% since 2007.

However, it is no secret that after four years of broad access to the highest
levels of government and expansion of our activities, in 2011 we began to come
up against internal and external difficulties due to the slowdown in investment,
an unprecedented crop failure and an intense process of consolidation that has
dramatically changed the profile of the larger companies within the industry.
UNICA’s recent statutory changes were a direct reflection of this new reality,
where members’ varying interests now require new forms of governance. At the
same time, the sector has also faced structural difficulties, for example the
conflict between the strong cost surge of recent years and the price ceiling
imposed on ethanol.

Life is often marked by major phases and UNICA is clearly going through a
change of cycle. For some time now, I have been aware that my phase of
contributions to the organization was coming to an end. I have remained with
UNICA until now for two reasons: first, because I felt an obligation to complete
the efforts to open up the U.S. market – this was one of the main motives that
brought me to UNICA, and it was achieved on December 31st last year –; and
second, because I made a commitment to the new Chairman of the Board,
Pedro Parente, that I would stay on at least until completion of the changes to
the statutes and Board composition, which were completed on March 6th.
am now leaving UNICA to seek new professional challenges at a time when
much remains to be done, given that modern agribusiness is a key part of the
solution to major questions relating to global food and energy security within a
scenario of rapid population growth and increasing limitations on natural
resources.

I shall end with two messages. The first is to hope that Brazil does not get
carried away by the promise of sub-salt petroleum. The country must continue
to build its matrix of clean, renewable and diversified energy sources, which has
gained such worldwide prominence – a matrix that includes the sugarcane
industry as one of its most important pillars; a benchmark for a low-carbon world
in the post-oil era.

My second message is that I believe above all in the importance of preserving
and strengthening institutions. These are what distinguish the development of
nations, and they must be lasting, because people are always transient. I leave
UNICA with the fervent hope that this fantastic institution, which I have been
proud to preside over, will continue forging ahead to new levels of achievement,
further enhancing its reputation, becoming ever more representative and ever
more widely recognized by those with whom it deals both inside and outside
Brazil as the organization of reference.

I will conclude by expressing my most sincere thanks for the support and
confidence I have received from the Board and Members of UNICA during
these five years. I salute and am grateful for the fruitful partnership that we have
built with the associations that make up the National Sugar-Energy Forum, with
the Organization of Sugarcane Growers in South-Central Brazil (Orplana) and
with companies involved in the AGORA and RenovAção projects. My thanks
also to our directors – Padua, Eduardo and Adhemar – and to the entire
technical and support staff at UNICA. Everything we have done in this period was born out of the enthusiasm, dedication and loyalty of these 60 people who
make UNICA happen – who make it unique. I shall miss every one of you.
Thank you for your affection and trust.

Sincerely,

Marcos Sawaya Jank