Throughout history, the Northeast has undergone several economic transformations, with emphasis on the 20th century, when the region suffered its greatest decline, being considered a “problem region” and becoming a major supplier of cheap labor, especially for Southeast Brazil.
Despite this, the region has a diversified economic activity, which has been accelerating in recent years, a fact that contributes decisively to better local development. This fact is related to the recent trend of migration of industries, formerly located in the Southeast, to the Northeast, an increasingly recurrent practice.
In the Middle North sub-region, which covers the entire state of Maranhão and the western portion of Piauí, the predominant economic activity is the cultivation of cotton, sugar cane and rice. In addition, the mining-metallurgical complex associated with the Grande Carajás Program, which carries out the practice of mining in the Serra dos Carajás for export, deserves special mention.
In the northeastern Sertão area, which covers the eastern portion of Piauí and most of the states of Ceará, Bahia, Sergipe, Pernambuco, Paraíba, Alagoas and Rio Grande do Norte, the main economic practice is extensive livestock, in addition to some activities agricultural activities carried out in the areas of swampsrelatively humid places in the middle of the sertanejo semi-arid region.
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In the Agreste, located in stretches of the states of Bahia, Sergipe, Alagoas, Paraíba and Rio Grande do Norte, there are some activities related to agriculture. However, the main economic activity is tourism.
In the Zona da Mata, coastal and more developed region of the region, in addition to tourism, this sub-region presents practices related to sugar production, oil production in the Recôncavo Baiano and cocoa monoculture. This is the area with the most intensity of industrialization today.
As we can see, the Northeast has quite diverse economic practices and socio-structural levels, a legacy of its colonial past. Currently, despite the problems related to drought and poverty, there is a clear industrial expansion underway in this region.
By Rodolfo Alves Pena
Graduated in Geography