Blairo Maggi, touted as the world's largest soybean producer, has been dethroned. The crown hasn't travelled far, though. The new king of soybeans is Blairo's 51 year old cousin Erai Maggi Scheffer, who this year planted 550,000 acres of beans. Blairo planted a mere 415,000 acres.
I met with Erai a few years back and at that time he claimed to have already outgrown his more famous cousin, at least in production if not planted acres.
Erai's story is fascinating. Unlike his wealthier cousin Blairo, Erai came from a poor family. After his father died in the early 70s, he took over the family farm of around 100 acres, together with his seven siblings.
In the early 80s, frustrated with the lack of growth opportunities in the south, he moved to the frontier state of Mato Grosso. He initially worked for his uncle, Andre Maggi - Blairo's father, but left after a few years when he was refused a raise.
He started out by renting a few thousand acres from a group of businessmen from Sao Paulo. Talk of land reform at the time, though, made the owners nervous and they sold the land to Erai at a bargain price and paid over several years.
Erai's next bit of luck was when a large trading company decided they wanted to build a processing plant on his land. He sold them a site and with the money he received he was able to pay off all his outstanding debt.
He also had enough money left over to buy a small airplane, something which he believes was pivotal to his rapid growth. In the following years he began flying across the state, buying and renting as much land as he could get his hands on.
When I spoke to him three years ago he had acquired over 250,000 acres, but that has since doubled, spread between 36 farms in every corner of the state - very impressive, given that most farmers in Mato Grosso have been losing money during this time.
Erai who never finished high school, has now nearly 4,000 employees, a fleet of 300 combines and will produce 660,000 metric tons of soybeans this year, or 1 percent of Brazil's total crop. He also planted 185,000 acres of corn and 130,000 acres of cotton this season.
Erai, unlike Blairo, is a hands-on farmer, who knows his business inside out. What struck me most about him was his incredible head for numbers. When we met he was with a couple of bankers from Sao Paulo, who were looking through his books. As I interviewed him on details of his many farms he was able to rattle off the numbers without batting an eye. I was impressed, as were the bankers. I'm sure he got his loan.
