Complexo soja no Mato Grosso do Sul: competitividade regional e vulnerabilidade territorial

Abstract

The analysis of soybean production in Mato Grosso do Sul, whose importance is indisputable in the regional context, reveals a heterogeneous dynamic among the producing municipalities. To understand this heterogeneity in regional terms, we developed a methodology that considered 21 variables, grouped into three weighting levels (6, 3 and 1) according to their degree of importance, to elaborate a production competitiveness index (lato sensu) of soybeans. Applied to the state of Mato Grosso do Sul, the index clearly shows that the Dourados region, comprising the municipalities of Dourados, Maracaju, Ponta Porã, Aral Moreira, Rio Brilhante e Sidrolândia, is definitely the most competitive state in soy production, having emerged or developed with greater sharpness since the beginning of the 2000s, due to the increase in Asian consumption and the high prices achieved by the commodity in the international market. Analyzing the productive structure of the state of Mato Grosso do Sul and, specially, its export agenda, marked by a restricted quantity of products, we analyzed the soybean complex - through the concept of productive space circuit, seeking to understand in a unitary way the production, distribution, exchange and consumption. Based on this approach, we recognize that the soybean complex requires more and more fluidity and efficiency for the flow of grain and its by-products from the Mato Grosso do Sul territory. In this sense, we understand that logistics is closely linked to the notion of regional competitiveness, and overcoming the logistical obstacles that the state presents is the main objective of various levels of government (municipal, state and federal). In this way, it was possible to understand an important contradiction arising from the dialectic between globalization and regionalization: on one hand, in the productive region scale, some parcels of the state of Mato Grosso do Sul are privileged in terms of public and private investments, with the purpose of inserting the commodities produced there competitively in the international markets; on the other hand, in the scale of the territory (municipal), what is verified is a growing vulnerability due to the productive specialization.