South America Calling

Archer Daniels Midland last week opened its new port terminal in the northern Brazilian city of Bacarena.

Costing $200 million, the terminal will receive grains that are principally trucked and barged up from Mato Grosso.

This is one of the numerous projects aimed at improving Brazil's overstretched logistics by redirecting grains currently sent by truck, at great expense, from the soy farms deep in the interior to southern ports to terminals in the Amazon and on the northern coast.

ADM hopes to export 1.5 million metric tons of grain via the port next year, rising to 6 mmt in 2016.

The ADM terminal is nearby Bunge's new Terfron terminal, which was opened in April.

Most of the soybeans will be brought up from northern Mato Grosso, 700 miles along the BR163 road to the Miritituba barge terminal and then barged another 700 miles along Amazon rivers to Bacarena. It's an arduous journey but more efficient than sending soybeans the equivalent distance along busy southeastern highways to ports, where ships can wait as much as three months to load.

Some 20% of the grains will be delivered by road, until a new railway from Acailandia, southern Maranhao, to Bacarena is built, which is forecast for 2020.

The building of these new logistics facilities in Para, the state in which Bacarena is situated, has prompted a rise in soybean planting in the region.

(CZ)

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