Day 10- All About Exports and Green Machines

Day 10 was another early one. We started off the day by heading up river to Vicentin port. A very large grain exporting port. Vicentin is roughly 80 years old and exports to China, Spain, Italy, and other Asia countries. Vicentin is a family owned company that takes pride in its employees by feeding them everyday free of cost to the employee. We students got see first hand the full process of the soybean crushing, biodiesel, loading soymeal onto barges, unloading of the trucks, and other processes that take place at this plant. It was very cool to be able to look out on the port and see the river and a ship being loaded. At full capacity the ship pictured below will take 40 hours to load and 4 days to unload. A ship like the one pictured below can hold 50 thousand tons! (That’s a lot)

The soybean crushing lines were running full speed when we were there doing 16000 tons a day between the two crushing lines. The older line can do 6000 tons a day while the new one can do 10000 tons a day! Vicentin has a total storage capacity of 360 thousands tons, which will be filled and empty over 2 times a year.

After a meal with the workers at Vicentin it was off to John Deere! This is located in a small town about 30 mins from Rosario. This plant first opened its doors in 1958. At this plant this they produce motors, assemble combines and 4 and 5 series tractors! This was very neat to see and has been a highlight of the trip for some… or maybe a downfall if you’re a red guy! Sorry Trace! We got to see first hand how the assembly line works and what it is done at each step of the process. Each day roughly 42 motors are put together, 3.5 tractors and up to 3 combines a day! Unforently we were not allowed to take pictures in the plant, but do have this one as a group pictured below!

Once back in Rosario students had some free time. Some went shopping, played cards, caught up on some sleep and just relaxed before a fancy dinner on the river.

We ended the night at Riomio, a restaurant that over looks the river. This was also a thank-you dinner with APOSGRAN group. Students had a variety of different cuts of beef and pork. The food was very good and ended the night by going to our host families.

Signing off for the final time from Argentina,

Tymbrie and Tucker