From farm to port: Simulation of the grain logistics in Brazil

Abstract

This paper presents a study about soybean and corn multimodal transportation and storage, from farm to port, considering the resources, locations and interferences. The harvest seasonality, climatic changes, road conditions, truck availability and warehouse options configure a very complex system with dozen of options. A simulation model was developed to evaluate and discover the better option under some future expected scenarios. Train, barges and ships were also considered as part of the logistic process. A localization study was made to feed the model with the best warehouse locations from the logistic point of view, and the model helped to choose which locations should be adopted. The simulation considering the complete chain provided a very precise and insightful answer about the system performance, guiding the future investments in the process.