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| Long drive on BR 163 with endless green farms |
Driving at around 80 mph on an endless road with a myriad for huge lush green farms on either side – the natural beauty is mesmerizing. As the golden rays of sun hit the earth, at the distant horizon you see convergence of green earth and blue sky. At that moment you can’t but think of a happy tune …but suddenly instead of melodious sound of music, you hear the screeching sound of car breaks!! There is a huge truck that has appeared in front of your car; the scary bit, it is on your lane can coming towards you in high speed....of course it is trying to overtake a slower moving truck on its own lane! The distance between you and the truck before it gets back on its lane… less than 50 meters! Welcome to BR163, a two way - single lane highway. With over 2500 miles and counting as it connects the south with the north of this huge country – it definitely is the lifeline of Brazilian logistics.
I am on a 5 day trip to Mato Grosso to see how our business really works beyond the numbers. It is a hectic schedule we spend 4 nights is 4 different cities, drive almost 1000 miles during the trip, but I have great company – a Brazilian, an American and an Argentine!
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| A shot of the 7000 hectare soybean farm plot we visited |
The first thing which strikes you in Mato Grosso is the scale of agriculture! The state produces over 20 million tons of soybean every year, highest in Brazil. To put the number in perspective consider this – the state alone produces twice the amount of soybean produced by the whole of India (and India is the 5th largest producer of soybean in the world). During the trip we get the opportunity to meet and talk with a couple of farmers – one of them owned 30,000 hectares farm land and the other owned 40,000 hectares. Sitting across the table with them you realize they are frank, easy to talk with and extremely simple in appearance and yet probably richer than the CEOs of most Fortune 500 companies!
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| The beautiful landscape of Mato Grosso |
As we spend days moving around surveying our company assets, meeting and talking with people – we probably spend 3 times the time in the car driving than in meetings/office. The upside, the captivating landscape throughout the drive – huge green flat stretches of plain land alternating between the great red-green Chapada Mountains. The worrying part – the realization that most of what we see was part of the forest reserves not so long ago. As part of Brazil’s Forestry Code – the farmers need to preserve 35% of the land in the region (Cerrado) as forest; this number increases to 80% as you go further north (Amazon rain forests). But clearly from what we see and hear the implementation and enforcement has been a challenge. It makes you wonder about all the deliberations regarding global warming.....! Counter that with an argument for world food security and economics (as most of the deforested area is now farm land) and you will be in middle of endless arguments and confusion!!!
After spending 4 days learning and seeing much more than we initially expected, it is time to go back to Sao Paulo – the beauty of the place and the wonderful people make saying good bye extremely difficult. Most of the Brazilians I meet prefer to spend time on the beach and have never traveled to the interiors – to me the interiors is their uncharted treasure. Definitely an experience to cherish for a very long time!
