Varginha is a

municipality A municipality is usually a single administrative division having corporate status and powers of self-government or jurisdiction as granted by national and regional laws to which it is subordinate. The term ''municipality'' may also mean the go ...

in southwest

Minas Gerais Minas Gerais () is a state in Southeastern Brazil. It ranks as the second most populous, the third by gross domestic product (GDP), and the fourth largest by area in the country. The state's capital and largest city, Belo Horizonte (literally ...

state, Brazil. Varginha stands out as one of the major centers of commerce and coffee production in Brazil and the world. The city is a center for export of coffee draining most of the production of the south of Minas Gerais, making the

grain trade The grain trade refers to the local and international trade in cereals and other food grains such as wheat, barley, maize, and rice. Grain is an important trade item because it is easily stored and transported with limited spoilage, unlike other ...

with several countries. The city is equidistant from the three largest metropolitan areas in Brazil (

Belo Horizonte Belo Horizonte (, ; ) is the sixth-largest city in Brazil, with a population around 2.7 million and with a metropolitan area of 6 million people. It is the 13th-largest city in South America and the 18th-largest in the Americas. The metropol ...

Rio de Janeiro Rio de Janeiro ( , , ; literally 'River of January'), or simply Rio, is the capital of the state of the same name, Brazil's third-most populous state, and the second-most populous city in Brazil, after São Paulo. Listed by the GaWC as a b ...

and

São Paulo São Paulo (, ; Portuguese for 'Saint Paul') is the most populous city in Brazil, and is the capital of the state of São Paulo, the most populous and wealthiest Brazilian state, located in the country's Southeast Region. Listed by the GaWC a ...

). The city is close to

Rodovia Fernão Dias The Rodovia Fernão Dias (official designation BR-381 or SP-010 in the state of São Paulo) is a federal highway which runs in the Brazilian states of São Paulo and southern region of Minas Gerais. In Atibaia, the Fernão Dias highway inter ...

. The city is served by Maj. Brig. Trompowsky Airport . Varginha achieved moderate fame in UFO circles due to the so-called

Varginha UFO incident The Varginha UFO incident involves a series of events in 1996 when residents of Varginha, Brazil claimed seeing one or more strange creatures and at least one unidentified flying object (UFO). Other associated claims include the capture of one or ...

in 1996, in which two extraterrestrial beings were allegedly spotted by locals and later captured by the Brazilian Army, along with the local police and fire department. After this episode, the city began to invest in "UFO tourism". Today there are bus stops with the shape of spaceships and a water tower downtown also in the shape of a spaceship. In August 2004, UFO researchers from all over Brazil came together at the I UFO Congress of Varginha, organized with the support of the City Hall.

Geography

According to the modern (2017) geographic classification by Brazil's National Institute of Geography and Statistics (

IBGE The Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics ( pt, Instituto Brasileiro de Geografia e Estatística; IBGE) is the agency responsible for official collection of statistical, geographic, cartographic, geodetic and environmental information ...

), the city is the main municipality in the

Intermediate Geographic Region of Varginha The Intermediate Geographic Region of Varginha (code 3108) is one of the 13 intermediate Intermediate and Immediate Geographic Regions, geographic regions in the Brazilian state of Minas Gerais and one of the 134 of Brazil, created by the National ...

Economy

Varginha is a major regional hub for services and industries. Several factories are established in the city such as

Philips Koninklijke Philips N.V. (), commonly shortened to Philips, is a Dutch multinational conglomerate corporation that was founded in Eindhoven in 1891. Since 1997, it has been mostly headquartered in Amsterdam, though the Benelux headquarters i ...

-Walita, Inovacon, Plascar, CooperStandart, SteamMaster and

Samsung The Samsung Group (or simply Samsung) ( ko, 삼성 ) is a South Korean multinational manufacturing conglomerate headquartered in Samsung Town, Seoul, South Korea. It comprises numerous affiliated businesses, most of them united under the ...

. There are also a large number of small enterprises in the industrial sector with regional success. It is also one of the biggest producers of

coffee Coffee is a drink prepared from roasted coffee beans. Darkly colored, bitter, and slightly acidic, coffee has a stimulant, stimulating effect on humans, primarily due to its caffeine content. It is the most popular hot drink in the world. S ...

in the world. The city's main economy sectors are agriculture (especially coffee), engineering, steel, car parts and metal-mechanics. Varginha has the biggest

GDP Gross domestic product (GDP) is a monetary measure of the market value of all the final goods and services produced and sold (not resold) in a specific time period by countries. Due to its complex and subjective nature this measure is ofte ...

in the southern region of

, a prosperous area with a high

HDI The Human Development Index (HDI) is a statistic composite index of life expectancy, education (mean years of schooling completed and expected years of schooling upon entering the education system), and per capita income indicators, wh ...

and close to big economy centers in the state of

. The city was ranked 7th by Veja Magazine for the Top 20 mid-size cities to invest and live in Brazil. Opened in 2012, the CIT-Centro Industrial Tecnológico (''portuguese for Industrial and technological center'') is a new industrial complex in the city's airport area and its home for the Porto Seco Sul de Minas (South Minas Dry Port), an imports/exports company for the city's coffee industry. Its location is considered one of the best for the logistics and transportation industries, close to Brazil's biggest economy centers.

Distances to cities

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São Paulo–Guarulhos International Airport SAO or Sao may refer to: Places * Sao civilisation, in Middle Africa from 6th century BC to 16th century AD * Sao, a town in Boussé Department, Burkina Faso * Saco Transportation Center (station code SAO), a train station in Saco, Maine, U.S ...

– *

Campinas Campinas (, ''Plains'' or ''Meadows'') is a Brazilian municipality in São Paulo State, part of the country's Southeast Region. According to the 2020 estimate, the city's population is 1,213,792, making it the fourteenth most populous Brazilian ...

– *

Viracopos International Airport Viracopos – Campinas International Airport (sometimes referred to as São Paulo/Campinas or São Paulo/Viracopos) is an international airport serving the municipality of Campinas, São Paulo State, Brazil. On 6 January 1987, the airport name w ...

– * Santos – *

Juiz de Fora Juiz de Fora (, '' Outsider Judge''), also known as J.F., is a city in the southeastern Brazilian state of Minas Gerais, approximately from the state border with Rio de Janeiro. According to 2020 estimates the current population is about 57 ...

– *

Pouso Alegre Pouso Alegre is a municipality in southern region of Minas Gerais state, Brazil, with a population of 152,549 in 2020. The area of the municipality is 543 km². It lies in the valley of the Sapucaí River. Cities that form boundaries with Po ...

– *

Ribeirão Preto Ribeirão Preto (Portuguese pronunciation: �ibejˈɾɐ̃w ˈpɾetu is a municipality and a metropolitan area located in the northeastern region of São Paulo state, Brazil. Ribeirão Preto is the eighth-largest municipality in the State wi ...

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Sights

Image:Nave_espacial_iluminada_Varginha.JPG, Illuminated spaceship Image:Lago de furnas Varginha 2.jpg, Furnas Lake Image:Lago de furnas Varginha.jpg, Yellow blossoms at Furnas Lake Image:Plantação de café em Varginha.jpg, Coffee plantation Image:Marina de barcos Varginha.jpg, Marina and Resort Image:Boa Ec Melão.jpg, Football game

References

External links