34 2015 Brazilian agricultural production is growing; the harvest has been increasing each year regardless of lack or excess of rain, pests or the economic situation of the country. Last season was no exception; in the period 2014/15 farmers reaped 200 million tons of grain, and established a new record. Although we know this figure won’t last long. It will soon be surpassed. In this field, volume leaders are respectively, soybeans and corn. Together, these two cultures reaches a nearly 90% of all grains produced in Brazil. For the third consecutive year, the Evaluation section of the ANFIR Yearbook – where major road implement users express their opinions about domestic products freely – is focusing on the main agricultural commodities in the country. The grain segment is emblematic, because there is a “ghost” haunting producers, transporters and society in general: the waste! Anyone who had travelled on Brazilian roads during the harvest season certainly had the opportunity to see the products falling from the truck body. This situation has not been completely resolved, but it is timely, as we will explain later. However the old image persists. Nowadays there are consultants, statisticians and other professionals – including press – who estimates there is a production loss of up to 10 %, which is outrageous, for it would represent a 20 million-ton loss during road transport! The influence of the roads Alysson Paolinelli, former Minister of agriculture, made a statement about the corn. Under his administration, Brazilian agriculture expanded into cerrado, his was the time when productivity and technology had expanded most and the Brazilian agribusiness had a special momentum. Currently, Paolinelli is a rural producer, President of the Brazilian Society of Corn Producers (Abramilho) and member of Board of directors of Maizal, an organization that comprehends representative entities of this segment in Brazil, Argentina and United States, together these countries represent more than 50% of the corn harvested worldwide. “The harvest in Brazil reaches 80 million tons”, shows Paolinelli. Practically everything that is harvested is transported in trucks from farms to the silos, warehouses, cooperatives and other storages. Even when products must travel to Brazilian shopping areas or to the sea ports in order to be shipped for export, the road transport still predominates with 70% of the total load. Concerning old “ghost,” he informs that losses still occur and that the poor conditions of the roads are to blame for the waste, “especially local roads, most of them are in awful conditions and they get even worse during rainy season”. The leader in this is quite demanding and recognizes that “the bodies for bulk corn transportation had evolved a lot in the past Safe means of transport Leaders of corn and soybean segments, the largest agricultural commodities from Brazil, talk about product losses during their transportation and analyze the quality of national road implement. Produto Product
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