Reduction in carbon emissions in the Brazilian agricultural value chain through a decrease in transported volume

Privileged characteristics have helped Brazil to consolidate itself as a leader in agricultural exports. These exports, however, have unique characteristic. They are heavily focused on commodity items, its production areas are relatively far from seaports and its transport matrix is strongly focused on road transportation. This combination of factors brings several environmental impacts. Popular alternatives to reduce them include replacing traditional diesel for green fuels, such as biodiesel, or changing the Brazilian transport matrix, concentrated on roads, to less polluting train and river transportation. There is, however, a third option to be considered. Not broadly discussed yet the focus of this paper: a change in Brazilian agricultural exports currently focused on food commodities to one oriented to the export of value added food products. There, carbon reduction would be achieved through a reduction of transported volume, a natural consequence of the industrial transformation process required to produce value added items.