Geografia e comércio internacional: a logística da fruticultura na região produtiva do Jaíba, Norte de Minas – MG

Abstract

Logistics understood as the historical form of the circulation process (transport, information and communication) contributes to the expansion of capitalism and to the productive specialization of the places. In fruticulture, logistics is used to manage supply chain, optimizing processes, and leveraging the competitiveness of companies. To be marketed in the international market, fruits need specialized, fast, efficient, efficient, quality and low cost transport logistics for the circulation of products from the place of production to the storage centers, following the customs premises until arriving at the final destination of the product. The productive region of Jaíba located in the north of the state of Minas Gerais is formed by the municipalities of Jaíba and Matias Cardoso.The region is an example of productive specialization focused on irrigated fruit production, with emphasis on banana, lime and mango. Starting in the 2000s, the companies in the region started the process of insertion in foreign market, mainly exporting lime. The objective of this work is to analyze the spatial dynamics of transport logistics, production and international trade through the flow of exports and imports of goods from the fruit growing sector in Jaíba from 2000 to 2017. The research was developed through the use of bibliographic review, secondary data collection, quantitative analysis of fruit production and export, and fieldwork and application of semi-structured interviews. The development of circulation system (transport, information and communication) imposes on world scale the possibility of productive integration of territories more and more distant, as it is the caseof the productive chain of fruticulture in Jaíba Productive Region that demands high productive specialization, commercialization and logistics. In this context, a brief discussion was presented on infrastructure networks, logistics applied to foreign trade and fruticulture. Afterwards, fruit market of Brazil and of Minas Gerais was discussed, identifying the main markets and commercial partners. Finally, we have analyzed the import and export networks of companies located in the Jaíba Productive Region. As a result, the region's trade networks (importation and exportation), constituted of 36 countries from different regions, were identified.Internally, Jaíba regionhas a direct relationship with seven states (Bahia, São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, Ceará, Rio Grande do Norte, Espírito Santo and Santa Catarina) and thirteen different customs premises, including five airport terminals (São Paulo, Campinas, Rio de Janeiro, Confins and Salvador) andeightportterminals (Salvador, Santos, Pecém, Fortaleza, Natal, Rio de Janeiro, Itajaí and Vitória). It has been noticed the need to invest in infrastructure networks, marketing, product marketing and transportation systems and logistics practices to increase the competitiveness of Brazilian companies, especially those located within Jaíba project, as a way to intensify their activities in international trade.