Trucks, Trains, and Barges: For Brazilian Soybeans, It’s Not Your Grandpa’s Infrastructure Anymore

In the popular movie “Planes, Trains & Automobiles”, the tagline said, “Steve Martin had no reason to panic… until John Candy came along”. In the soybean market, we could say, “We had no reason to panic… until Brazil came along”. Brazil has been rapidly growing its soybean production for the last 30 years and has recently become the largest exporter in the world. In 2024/25, USDA estimates that Brazil will account for 58% of soybean exports worldwide, followed by the United States with 28%. These are roughly the numbers for 2023/24 and 2022/23 as well. Still, despite the massive growth in production and exports since the 1990s, Brazil has often had a notoriously poor transportation infrastructure. This created very large logistic costs, which heavily affected its competitiveness in the world market. But this is starting to change more visibly now. In the last 5-10 years, thanks to developments in the transportation infrastructure, Brazil started closing the competitive gap with the United States. More than that, it’s closing the gap fast. Recent developments in infrastructure have focused on improving efficiency, reducing costs, and enhancing connectivity between production areas and export markets.