Brazil's northern shift

摘要

Brazil produces an abundance of grain, but exporting the commodity to world markets relies heavily on trucking services and the country's southern ports, particularly Santos and Paranagua. This has resulted in longer journeys and rising costs, as new areas for grain have opened up and congestion has worsened, both on the main highways and local access roads to/from the ports. In addition, rising exports have put pressure on storage capacity in the marine terminals, and berth availability has become an issue at certain times of the year. For several years, there has been talk of transporting substantially more grain through the country's Amazonian ports and those located in the north-eastern region of the country, which are closer to the principal grain and soya bean growing areas. While traffic volumes have picked up, until recently, there was a lack of capacity and modern facilities to process this cargo in many of the region's ports. Land transport infrastructure has also been inadequate. But this is changing.