Page 36 - Export or Bust eBook

Leaking soybeans and corn, tarp-covered trucks try to
avoid potholes the size of refrigerators as drivers are
either delivering the crops to the port or taking them
off barges to silos where the grain and oilseeds will
wait before being shipped to Mexico, China, Europe
and elsewhere around the globe.

It's all part of what Odilson Luiz Ribeiro e Silva, head
of international affairs for Brazil’s Ministry of
Agriculture, calls Brazil’s agricultural revolution. The

country, fueled by abundant land and rising

international demand for soybeans and corn, is

bringing together improved production and
transportation across South America’s largest country.

Slowly but surely, crops are making their way up
rivers, roads and railroad tracks to ports now dotting Brazil’s 4,560 miles of coastline.

It’s a movement that’s helping Brazil in an effort to beat the U.S. at its own game of leveraging
strong production and efficient transportation infrastructure to deliver its crops around the globe.

But Brazil is not alone in stepping up its export “game” in an effort to capture more market share.

Neighboring Argentina also set sights on U.S. corn and wheat markets. And since 2000, the major
agricultural countries of the former Soviet Union—Kazakhstan, Russia, and Ukraine (the KRU) —have

become a large grain-exporting region, according to USDA.

“The floor of competition rises
every day and it’s been that

way for a long Note: Exports are gross. Years are grain marketing years, each of which
time,” emphasized Tom Sleight, starts in July and ends in June of the following year. KRU = Kazakhstan,
Russia, and Ukraine.
CEO of the US Grains Council
Source: USDA:ERS
during the Agri-Pulse Ag and
Food Summit. “I still think U.S.

agriculture is still highly

competitive. In terms of our

technology, our management,

our use of precision agriculture,

our ability to customize supply

in terms of what the customer
wants – how they want it, when

they want it, what form they

want, our grain standards

system, our contract sanctity -

everything about the US

agriculture system is still top of
the line.”

However, Sleight says it’s going to require new investments in U.S. infrastructure, technology, and
management for the U.S. to remain a market leader.

34 www.Agri-Pulse.com