 Crop transport is a longstanding structural problem for Brazilian agriculture.Calmon noted that, since the Empire, "the disposal of the harvest is difficult" and indicated that "the old projects of iron roads or cartable paths, linking the coast to the central mountains (...) are resisted by skeptical statesmen, quoting Thiers, who, in 1841, believed that railways were not convenient to France".Crops are immediately trucked to market via highways, mostly in poor traffic conditions at high cost.