Transportation has become even more crucial for the agricultural sector as harvests are expected to increase, at the same time as the sector feels the impact of adverse environmental conditions, such as the drought, and the effects of the pandemic. A study by the National Confederation of Agriculture (CNA) estimates that, if trains were available, transport costs would be reduced by 40% and 50%. This percentage was calculated from the simulation of corn leaving from Mato Grosso and traveling 2,000 km to the Northeast via highways. If the product left the state via the BR-163, passed through Ferrogrão railway (the auction is suspended in court) through the Amazon River and went to the Northeast by cabotage, the costs would fall by half. “While a truck carries 35/40 tons of soy and corn on highways for 1 or 2 thousand kilometers, a train with 86 wagons would carry the equivalent of 170 trucks”, explains Elisângela Pereira.
Sources: O Globo/Portos e Navios (*Translated by Ia Niani)