Valparaiso | city, municipality

 city, municipality

Valparaiso is a municipality in the state of Sao Paulo in Brazil. It is located at latitude 21°13′40″ South and longitude 50°52′06″ West, with an altitude of 449 meters. The population in 2004 was 19.612 and the area is 861.96 km².
History
The city was founded by Francisco Leite Vieira in the early 30's because of the expanding cultivation of coffee. During this period, the lands of the northwest regions of the state were already taken by coffee farmers searching through the forests of the west in search of new land for planting. There were many conflicts, mainly on the banks of the river Aguapeí between the Indians who inhabited the region and the coffee barons eager to expand their crops.
By the end of the 40's the region seduced the coffee baron Geremias Lunardeli, who had acquired a large area for the expansion of his plantations. Lunardeli already had some coffee plantations in Northwestern São Paulo and northern Paraná and acquired the farm now known as Aguapeí. He encouraged other distinguished coffee barons of the time to do the same. Thus, part of the family Cunha Bueno, Geremias which was very close, also acquired several farms in the region, including Saint Helena, Pinheiro Machado, Buenópolis - Lavinia, Santa Maria - Bento de Abreu.
Economy
The main economic activity is the cultivation and industrialization of sugar cane to produce sugar and alcohol alcohol fuel used in motor vehicles. As economic activities have secondary crops of maize, coffee and predominantly beef cattle. The town has two distilleries, Univalem belonging to the group Cosan and Da Mata, development groups Greendene and Brasif. In the town there is installed a unit of Ajinomoto, where the production of an amino acid called lysine, used in the fattening of animals, especially pig. The Agricultural Jacarezinho, owned group Greendene distinguished by advanced genetics of cattle and to have the largest private forest reserve of the State of Sao Paulo.