Brazil's soybean outflow causes truck queue in Rondonia

Market: Agriculture, Freight
20/03/25

The waiting time for shipping the 2024-25 soybean crop at Brazil's port of Porto Velho reached six days this week, according to the local soybean producers association Aprosoja-RO.

Lack of port infrastructure and farm storage, combined with the 2024-25 oilseed harvest peak in recent weeks, increased the truck queue for the flow of cargo at the port, in Brazil's northern state of Rondonia.

"We have a queue of up to 1,200 trucks at the Porto Velho sorting yard, where all the production from the state and from Mato Grosso's northwest region are transported," said the administrative director of Aprosoja-RO, Marcelo Lucas. The cargo is shipped and continues along the Madeira River to the port of Santarem, in northern Para state, where it is exported.

The 2024-25 soybean harvest in Rondonia is expected to reach 2.4mn metric tonnes (t), up by 7pc from the previous cycle, according to the national supply company Conab.

Rondonia state did not have difficulties of this magnitude in previous years, but because of the peak in this cycle's harvest, there is a higher volume to be transported in a shorter period of time, according to Aprosoja-RO.

Aprosoja-RO also said the logistical bottlenecks have caused losses to producers, who are unable to transport the harvest from their properties. The cargoes that are able to be loaded end up degraded because of the long waits in lines.

Farmers are also absorbing the costs of keeping trucks parked in warehouses and ports, raising road freight prices to levels above what is traditionally practiced in the region, said Aprosoja-RO. In the week ending 13 March road grain freight on the Sapezal-Porto Velho corridor reached R235/t ($42/t), compared to R185/t in the same period in 2024.

The entity said they are working with the state government to review the concession of the Porto Velho port, allowing other companies to operate it. Aprosoja-RO received reports that there are idle spaces that could be serving the producers.

The port of Porto Velho is managed by the state ports and waterways society Soph, which said it does not manage the external truck queues, and does not have authority in the retroport area of trucks awaiting clearance for sorting to the terminals.

By Bruno Castro

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