Family Agribusiness Groups and the Spatial Reconfiguration of Brazil’s Agrarian Frontiers

Abstract

This article examines how the Brazilian agribusiness group Amaggi, led by the Maggi family, shapes Brazil’s agrarian frontiers. Drawing on critical agrarian geography and the works of Lefebvre, Harvey, Gramsci, and Santos, it conceptualises frontier-making as a process of spatial reconfiguration through which material infrastructures, governance arrangements, and symbolic practices are aligned to stabilise circulation under conditions of ongoing instability. Examining three frontier configurations across Mato Grosso, Amazonas, MATOPIBA, the article shows that this process takes three distinct but interconnected forms: institutionalised territorial arrangements, transit-oriented corridor formation, and contractual-informational coordination. The analysis shows how the Amaggi group coordinates these different frontier configurations across scales by combining economic assets, political influence, and symbolic visibility. The case demonstrates that family agribusiness groups are analytically important organisational actors in contemporary capitalist frontier-making and supports their more systematic incorporation into critical agrarian studies of the production of space.