Alexandre Rocha, special envoy
Cuiabá and Rondonópolis – The use of waterway potential in the Brazilian midwest and north may simplify and reduce the cost of crop transport in the midwestern Brazilian state of Mato Grosso. There are four channels that may answer to the state demand, as alternatives to highways, many in precarious conditions, and to the railway that only reaches the southeast of the state of Mato Grosso.
The channels that may be used are rivers Teles Pires and Tapajós, which connect the state of Mato Grosso to Santarém, in the northern Brazilian state of Pará, the Araguaia and Tocantins rivers, which may be used for cargo transport from the east of the state to the northeastern Brazilian state of Maranhão, simplifying access to Itaqui port, in the Northeastern state, and the Paraguay-Paraná waterway, which connects the Cáceres region, in southeastern Mato Grosso to Nova Palmira, in Uruguay, and the Madeira-Amazon waterway, between Porto Velho, in the northern Brazilian state of Rondônia, and Itacoatiara port in the Northern state of Amazonas, west of state capital Manaus.
"Where it costs US$ 1 to transport products on a waterway, it costs US$ 3 to transport the same volume on railways, and US$ 9 on highways," stated the Rural Development secretary of the state of Mato Grosso, Homero Alves Pereira, referring to the gain the use of waterways can provide to producers.
The Teles Pires-Tapajós and Araguaia-Tocantins waterways, however, are only projects that, before becoming reality, are going to cause great discussion, especially due to the environmental impact caused by implementation. They are currently considered "not viable" in the evaluation of the Mato Grosso state Strategic Project secretary, Cloves Vettorato.
In the case of the Paraguay-Paraná and Madeira-Amazon waterways, they are already in operation. The former, however, currently answers to a small volume of Mato Grosso state production, between 200,000 and 300,000 tons a year, against total production of 22 million tonnes of grain and fibre obtained in the last harvest (15 million tons of soy).
"It is necessary to adapt the vessels to the rivers as they are shallow," stated Pereira. "We urgently need greater investment in logistics as it is not productive to increase production if we cannot transport it," he added. Mato Grosso has plans of duplicating its agricultural production by 2012.
Opting for the north
It was mainly due to the possibility of reducing the cost of freight and to the possibility of transport of production in the west and northeast of the state that André Maggi group, which belongs to the current governor of the state of Mato Grosso, Blairo Maggi, invested in the creation of the Madeira-Amazon waterway. It is in that region that the largest part of agricultural production traded by the company is concentrated.
Inaugurated in 1997, the corridor currently answers to the transport of around 2 million tons of grain a year, or almost 10% of the Mato Grosso grain and fibre crops.
According to group president Pedro Jacyr Bongiolo, the waterway brings an economy of US$ 25 per ton transported when compared to highway transport. "In the past, the entire production in the West of the state was transported to the south, to the ports of Santos and Paranaguá (in the southeastern and southern Brazilian states of São Paulo and Paraná, respectively)," he said.
Initial investment totalled US$ 67.3 million in the purchase of barges, improvement of Porto Velho port terminal and in construction of Itacoatiara port. But the company was not responsible for the full cost. The government of the state of Amazonas, in northern Brazil, had a significant 36.5% participation, and Brazilian oil giant Petrobras invested another 5%. Funds were also obtained from the Superintendence for the Development of the Amazon (Sudam) and the Brazilian Development Bank (BNDES).
The enterprise is currently entirely controlled by the Maggi group, through a subsidiary, Hermasa Navegação da Amazônia S.A.
The route followed by the cargo starts in productive regions like Sapezal, in the west of the state, and it is transported on lorries for almost 1,000 kilometres up to Porto Velho. There, the produce is transferred to barges that travel 1,150 kilometres on the Madeira and Amazon rivers to Itacoatiara. Hermasa currently uses convoys composed of 16 barges capable of transporting 32,000 tonnes at a time. The company fleet is composed of 60 barges and five pushers.
Porto Velho terminal has a capacity for the shipping of 13,000 tonnes of products a day and Itacoatiara can store up to 300,000 tons. In the Amazonas port, Maggi group also built a soy crushing plant with the capacity for the processing of 2,000 tonnes a day. From there the products follow 1,100 kilometres by water to the mouth of the Amazon river and to the Atlantic Ocean, passing through the city of Macapá, capital of the northern state of Amapá.
"The Madeira-Amazon waterway is a peaceful modal that travels day and night," stated secretary Cloves Vettorato.
On the return trip, the barges are filled with imported fertilizers that supply the demand of Mato Grosso farmers, especially those of the Maggi group. It helps to recall that state governor Blairo Maggi is the largest individual soy producer in the world. Itacoatiara port includes a stationary vessel that serves as a warehouse for fertilizers.
Economic impact
Up to 2003, the waterway only transported products produced and sold by the Maggi group. But this year, the company started providing services to third parties. The company has closed, for example, a 10-year contract to transport products for multinational company Bunge. The value of the contract was not revealed.
According to the executive, with the expansion and improvement that has been taking place since 1997, total investment in the project has already reached US$ 98 million, in current figures. Investment of this magnitude has caused an impact on the region. According to Bongiolo, the company has generated 672 jobs, and has already paid around US$ 10.1 million in salaries in Amazonas state. In Rondônia state, a total of 102 jobs were created, and salaries paid have generated around US$ 2 million.
"Apart from that, production in the region supplied by the project has tripled, rising from one million tonnes in 1996 to three million nowadays," finished off Bongiolo. Read more about the profile of the Maggi group in the link below.
