Feb 21, 2025
Brazil Supreme Court Delays Rule on Fate of Ferrograo Railroad
Author: Michael Cordonnier/Soybean & Corn Advisor, Inc.
Fate of the Ferrograo Railroad (Grain Railroad) in northern Brazil is still being considered by the Brazilian Supreme Court. The National Land Transport Agency (ANTT) has presented to the Supreme Court a social-environmental impact and viability study that the court requested last August. The court is still analyzing the results of the study.
The Ferrograo Railroad will extend 933 kilometers from the city of Sinop in northern Mato Grosso to the Port of Miritituba located on a southern tributary of the Amazon River. The railroad will parallel Highway BR 163 and is seen as an alternative to the thousands of trucks carrying grain, fertilizers, wood, and other products.
The railroad project has been in judicial limbo for more than three years after PSOL filed suit questioning the route and environmental impact on the Jamanxim National Park. Approximately 860 hectares of parkland (2,100 acres) would be needed for the railroad which would pass near, but not through, six indigenous areas. In May of 2024, ANTT presented to the court an alternative route to avoid the nation park, but they did not indicate how much additional costs would be incurred by the new route.
Environmental and indigenous groups are opposed to any railroad regardless of the route chosen because they contend that it would encourage deforestation for additional agricultural production. Proponents of the railroad rightly indicate that the railroad would reduce carbon emissions by eliminating tens of thousands of trucks needed to transport grain and other goods to northern ports. The Brazilian Supreme Court is trying to strike a balance between these groups.
Proponents of the railroad indicated that they could start construction one year after approval from the Supreme Court.