Resumo (EN)
The transport of grains between production and consumption sites is nowadays in Brazil as one of the biggest problems about Brazilian agricultural competitiveness. With its continental dimension and an extensive road network, the country has high expenses in the use of this modality, becoming less competitive in the world market due to its transportation costs, aggravating itself with some periods of drought that can happen. Based on soybean transport by the Tietê Paraná Waterway, this study analyses the economic viability of the Brazilian waterway transport, presenting its advantages and disadvantages, in a scenario where transportation infrastructure problems are challenging. For the common characteristics such as geographic dimensions, a comparison of the Brazilian situation with the North American was made, since the latter divides the lead of grain production in the world with Brazil and does not present a distortion of the matrix used, using Waterway transport.
