ASSESSMENTS

Getting Brazil's Infrastructure Back on Track

Dec 15, 2017 | 09:00 GMT

Bolivia and Brazil have an agreement to build a rail line through Bolivia that would connect the Peruvian port of Ilo with Brazil's rail network.

Bolivia and Brazil have struck an agreement to build a rail line connecting the Brazilian midwest with the Peruvian port of Ilo. Other rail options may be less costly for Brazil, however.

(EVARISTO SA/AFP/Getty Images)

Highlights

Inadequate transportation infrastructure connecting Brazil's grain-producing midwestern states with the country's northern ports adds logistical costs that hold back agricultural exports.
Financing and other issues inflicted by the corruption scandal that engulfed major Brazilian engineering firms derailed construction on previous infrastructure projects.
Over the next year, however, Brazil's government will auction construction rights for two major railways that would connect the country's grain-exporting regions with those ports.

Brazil's breadbasket is centered in its fertile midwestern highlands with their subtropical climate conducive to growing grain. But given the poor transportation infrastructure connecting those grain-producing regions with major ports on the northeastern coast, Brazilian corn and soybeans often do not follow the most efficient route to export destinations. Considering the importance of agriculture to both Brazil's gross domestic product and its total exports, improving the efficiency of road and railway networks has been a priority for the country. Action on infrastructure projects until now has been derailed, but that is changing....

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