Ascensão e queda de uma gigante: a crise da Chapecó Alimentos e os impactos socioeconômicos no Município de Xaxim (1995-2015)

Abstract

The present work analyzes the main socioeconomic impacts caused by the Chapecó Alimentos crisis in the municipality of Xaxim between 1995 and 2015. These impacts include a drop in tax revenues, unemployment, trade defaults, closing companies, among others. Chapecó Alimentos is a subsidiary of Sociedade Anônima Indústria e Comércio (SAIC), a holding company founded in the municipality of Chapecó in 1952. The company operated in the national and international market for more than 50 years, until the Court declared its bankruptcy in the year 2005. Just like Chapecó, meatpacking plants started to appear in the region in 1940, originating from the colonization process of the West of Santa Catarina, led by descendants of Europeans who migrated from Rio Grande do Sul in the 1920s. in various rural activities, such as grain production and raising beef cattle, with emphasis on pigs. These activities enabled the accumulation of capital and production surpluses that resulted in the emergence of commercial houses and slaughterhouses specialized in the production of lard and meat products. The slaughterhouses prospered, became the main pillar of the local economy and forever transformed the region's socioeconomic and environmental scenario. With theoretical contributions from Social History, a bibliographic review was used as a qualitative and quantitative methodology, followed by the analysis of the bankruptcy judicial process and news published in the press and the search and interpretation of statistical data offered by official bodies.