Observations from Duane Dahlman, Marengo, Ill.
Today, we took a train trip down the mountains to Morretes for a boat ride on Paranaguá Bay. Soybean transportation from farms to ports has been a perennial and costly challenge in Brazil, but Mato Grosso’s agricultural competitiveness is expected to improve dramatically with completion of a major road paving project in 2011 that could shift some soybean exports from southern ports like Santos and Paranaguá to the closer, north port of Santarém on the Amazon River.
The transportation infrastructure in Brazil is really growing, and we saw that today in Paranagua Bay. They have taken a short time to grow. They plan to virtually double their capacity in the next couple of years, so that tells me they want more product to come in and out of this facility and they want to grow. From what I have seen and heard, they are going to do it.
Earlier this week, one thing that struck me, which is important for the entire nation of Brazil, is that they invite the average person into their stock exchange. They want the average person investing in their country. That speaks to me that they are trying to make the economy grow.
We’ve seen some fairly large farms, and in the next few days we will see some smaller farms. By fairly large, one the other day was about 50,000 hectares or 123,550 acres. We will see more farms in the 1,000-acre range, which is closer to what many of us are running. So we will see how they manage those farms. Farmers are farmers across the world. We are all trying to tweak our production and to get the most out of our land and make the best management decisions.
I got to see cotton growing yesterday. It was the first time I had seen a live cotton plant. I learned a little more about how cotton is grown, and have a much greater respect for the people who grow it. It is very labor intensive.
I’ve thoroughly enjoyed this trip. I’ve never seen this part of the world. I think it’s great.
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