Down the Amazon.

Brazil's Andre Maggi group has discovered a faster, cheaper way to get its soybeans to international markets.

JUST EAST OF MANAUS, THE DARK, RAPID Black River meets the creamy tranquil Solimoes. The two clash for about five miles in the same channel, mixing slowly

It's no easier to mix the modes of cargo transportation on the Amazon or throughout Brazil, But one company has found a way to conquer not only Amazon logistics, but other intermodal barriers blocking inland cargo from the Brazilian coast.

The privately held Andre Maggi group has spliced together a network of trucks and river barges to move hundreds of thousands of tons of soybeans from its headquarters in the Mato Grosso interior town of Chapada dos Parecis to the Amazon and out to sea to Japan, Italy and other foreign markets.

It's quite a journey for a country that moves only slightly more than 10% of its cargo by river, even though Brazil has one of the biggest navigable river networks in the world. "We don't have the river systems of Europe or the United States," says the company's chairman, Blairo Maggi. "But we are developing one.

That kind of development costs money-about $28 million just to build the company's port at Itacoatiara, where the Madeira River meets the Amazon and where the soybeans are transshipped to larger seagoing ships.

It can also create a lot of paperwork In Brazil, a shipper, carrier or consignee needs a new set of documents every time a piece of cargo changes from a truck. barge, ship or plane to another form of transportation. "You cannot move cargo from Minas Gerais and consolidate with more in Sao Paulo without needing to do customs in both places:' says Leonardo D.M. Abreu, director of Sao Paulo logistics company Circle International Group. Slow grind. The government is studying a law to ease the intermodal process for logistic companies and those, like Maggi, who want to move their own cargo. "We want to use different modes for the transportation of cargo:' insists Brazilian Transportation Minister Eliseu Padilha, noting the country's underdeveloped river network.

But the gears of the Brazilian government grind slowly when it comes to new transport regulations. And companies like the Maggi group, the biggest soybean producer in Brazil, can little afford to waste their time waiting.

Before setting up its current structure, Maggi was trucking its soybeans south and east to the seaports of Santos and Paranagua--about the same distance between Atlanta and Baltimore--at a cost of about $110 a ton. Between 60% and 70% of the country's freight moves by truck, and the carriers have carved up their own regions, setting high rates with little fear of competition. "It's very expensive," Maggi says.

The choice of ports proved even more expensive. The soybeans would wind up waiting seven days in Paranagua and up to 12 in Santos, the busiest port in all of Latin America. So the Maggi group built its own port in the Amazon. Now the company trucks the soybeans from Chapada dos Parecis north and east to Porto Velho, in Rondonia, where they are transshipped and barged down the Madeira River to Itacoatiara and finally down the Amazon and out to foreign markets.

The cost is about $65 per ton. During the last harvest, the company's shipping group, Hermasa Navegacao, moved about 550,000 tons of soybeans through Itacoatiara. "We have been doing this for three years now," Maggi says. "And it's been going very well."

While such intermodalism maybe in its infancy, the Maggi network is far from primitive. For example, it uses global positioning satellites to help navigate its river course. And the company now has plans to expand. It is looking at a possible grain terminal on the banks of the Tapajos River in Santarem farther down the Amazon. From there, the company can transfer its cargo to bigger ships--with a displacement of up to 120,000 tons. The freight cost to Rotterdam, for example, could drop to as low as $14 or even $10 a ton.

Tourists and fishing boats know that the meeting of the rivers provides just the right mix for fish and fowl. And just a bit downstream, the Maggi group has found the perfect intermodal mix for logistical success.