At the airport you will be met by one of our tourist guides/employees of ATI who will answer any questions during your trip and act as translator for you. Portuguese is the language of Brazil, one of three countries in the world that have it as their primary language. Each day you will eat a European style breakfast with many pastries, meats and fruit. Fresh orange juice and coffee are specialties of Brazil! Lunch will be in one of the traditional Brazilian restaurants. Dinner will be Rodízio or churrascaria Brazilian style and tend to be later than we are used to. At dinner, each evening the host from the day's tour/visit will join us. This will give us the opportunity to get to know them better and to ask questions about the day's events. We guarantee you will not go home hungry as Brazilians enjoy plenty of fresh produce and grass fed beef!! While our days will be all business, generally evenings will be open for you to enjoy the local nightlife, music, and sights.

Day 1 - We will take our bus for a tour of a coffee and orange farm, hosted by an English speaking landowner. Coffee and orange groves are moving north in Brazil. While expensive to plant, once in production these groves can be cropped for over 15 years. We will spend the night in Campinas or Jaquariuna depending on the time. These cities are near one of the largest flower production settlements in the world established by the Dutch.

Day 2 - After breakfast, the group will travel to Ribeirao Preto. Ribeirao is known for its excellent beer production, which has been heavily influenced by German immigrants over the years. This is sugar country and we will visit a sugar cane alcohol processing plant. In the afternoon, we will visit a corporate farm. You will see that the local farmers have adopted all of US technologies and that this area offers some of the richest producing soil in all of Brazil. The night will be spent in Uberlandia. Uberlandia is the capital of its state, Minas Gerais. It is one of the last cities heading north that will have all of the comforts of home. This is cattle country but one can also see row crop production, as well as pineapples and other fruits growing. In Uberlandia we will visit with an import/export specialist as well as one of the larger John Deere dealerships in Central Brazil. We should be able to get any questions on dealership operations and ownership at this time. (Please remember that we are traveling as a small group and can adjust the itinerary to fit your needs along the way. This means that at any point along the way our group can visit dealerships or any other site that you think of interest.)

Day 3 - Early start, with a tour of a soybean processing plant. Most of Brazil's crushing capacity has been built in the last 10 years and is very modern. You will recognize the names of the grain companies as ADM, Bunge and Cargill owning the majority of the crush and export facilities. We will then visit a seed facility on our way to Rio Verde, Goias, home of Advance Trading's first Brazilian office. Rio Verde is a very fertile area and has grown significantly due to the agriculture expansion. Today the city still has a small town feel even though its population is over 200,000 people. There is no McDonalds in Rio Verde but you can get a hamburger and shake at a local Mennonite-owned restaurant. Two crops a year help make the area one of the more profitable as well! Developed ground in this area has recently traded as high as $2000. In 1999 this ground traded for $400. Rio Verde is home to 3 soybean processing plants, an integrated corn dry mill, a tomato processing plant, and to Peridgome, one of the largest meat producers and processors in Brazil (similar to Tyson in the US).

Day 4 - After breakfast, our group will visit an integrated Coop facility. You will see that Brazil Coops are active in production and processing all the way to the consumer. We will have a chance to meet many local Brazilian farmers and businessmen in the afternoon to learn about doing business in Brazil. The Brazilians are very social and like to make contacts within Australians/US that they can share crop and weather information. Often phone numbers and e-mails are exchanged.

Day 5 - On this day we will tour the bean rim and a meat packing facility. The production area of Rio Verde is marked by many colonies from various cultures around the world. For example there is a US colony, as well as Russian and Dutch colonies. The kill floor of the meat packing plant is one of the largest and most modern in the world. You will notice many chicken and Pig finishing operations scattered through the countryside. We will spend one last night in Rio Verde.

Day 6 - After breakfast, our group will travel through cattle country and spend some relaxing time at a natural hot springs spa/water park. Our evening will be spent in Caldas Novas. The natural spring was created by a depression in a small mountain range and has turned into a very luxurious resort. You will truly enjoy the atmosphere of this hot springs resort.

Day 7 - Up for breakfast, then fly domestically to Sao Paulo. Brazil is number three in commercial aircraft production in the world. Brazilian domestic flights are very posh. They still serve meals and the drinks are free! Upon landing we will do a quick tour of Sao Paulo and last minute shopping as time permits before we board the plane to come home to the Australia! The flight arrives back in the Australia is to be determined.


Hopefully after your tour you will have made many new friends and contacts. Brazil has many idiosyncrasies that you will learn during your trip. Their government tends to be very bureaucratic, taxes, laws and stop signs are "just suggestions", and meetings often are late to start and even later to finish. We are certain you will have a better understanding of the true potential of Brazilian agriculture and it's impact on your business.