2023-09-10 03:00:13
Funny place for a traffic jam. In the middle of the Amazon, on the BR-163 road which crosses the Brazilian state of Para, the landscape alternates between jungle and pastures. But on the asphalt, all year long, there stretches an uninterrupted line of trucks. At gas stations, these 25 meter monsters weighing more than 30 tonnes wait by the hundreds in the humid heat. When the truck drivers aren’t driving, they relax on folding chairs, soda in hand, in the shade of their heavy truck. Most traveled more than 1,000 kilometers in forty-eight hours, surging from the fields of the neighboring state of Mato Grosso to the south. Their objective is the port of Miritituba, known as “Miri”, on the Rio Tapajos. Several days of waiting are often necessary to unload the cargo.
This comes down to a single product: soya. Brazil has become, in a few years, the leading producer in the world with 156 million tonnes for 2022-2023 harvest (five times European oilseed production!), over an area of 44 million hectares (the equivalent of Germany, Belgium and the Netherlands combined). Mato Grosso alone accounts for a third of national production.
A small, round, nondescript grain, soya is now the “green gold” of Brazil. This country is also the leading international seller and meets half of global demand, with 95 million tonnes exported per year. The entire sector (grain, but also oil and animal rations) brought Brazil $61 billion in 2022, or nearly a fifth of its export revenues. A jackpot that justifies the Amazonian traffic jams…
Endless versatility
If Brazil is an agricultural giant, nothing predestined it to become the leader in soya. The plant – a legume (Fabaceae) 1.50 meters high – appeared very far from Rio or Sao Paulo, domesticated between 6,000 and 3,500 BC on the plains of China. The oilseed did not arrive in Europe until the 18th century.e century, where it quickly acquired commercial potential. The seeds of this “magic bean” have an exceptional protein (40%) and lipid (18%) content. Oil, margarine, fertilizers, cosmetics, fuels, animal fibers and meals (cakes)… Its versatility, that is to say the range of its uses, is infinite.
Au XXe century, the United States made this legume a cash crop. After the Second World War, the demand for protein exploded and, with it, that of the meals that feed cows, pigs, poultry and fish in the West. Insightful, Washington fully subsidizes the sector and floods the European market. In 1965, it held 75% of the world soy market. But this success only lasted a short time: in 1973, the harvests were catastrophic. To avoid shortages, President Richard Nixon (1969-1974) decreed an embargo on exports. This is when Brazil comes into play…
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