Formiga, Minas Gerais, Southeast Region, Brazil

🇧🇷 Formiga is a municipality in central-west Minas Gerais state, Brazil. It is located in the statistical meso-region of Centro-Oeste de Minas and the statistical micro-region of Formiga. It was founded in 1839.

Formiga is a statistical micro-region containing municipalities: Arcos, Camacho, Córrego Fundo, Formiga, Itapecerica, Pains, Pedra do Indaiá, and Pimenta.

Communications Formiga is linked to Belo Horizonte by MG-050 and lies 2 km south of the highway junction. There is also a railroad line carrying freight. The closest point on the Furnas reservoir is 25 km to the south-west.

Distances to other cities: • Divinópolis: 76 km • Bom Despacho: 110 km • Lavras: 115 km • Arcos: 26 km • Belo Horizonte: 194 km • Rio de Janeiro: 545 km • São Paulo: 470 km • Brasília: 812 km.

Economy Services, light industry, and agriculture are the most important economic activities. In 2004 there were 2,481 enterprises, of which the majority were concentrated in the commerce sector, vehicle repair, and sales of personal and domestic objects. The GDP in 2005 was approximately R$474 million, R$44 million from taxes, 311 million reais from services, 67 million reais from industry, and 50 million reais from agriculture. There were 1,865 rural producers on 77,000 hectares of land (2006). 229 farms had tractors (2006). Approximately 5,600 persons were employed in agriculture. The main crops are coffee, beans, soybeans, rice, sugarcane, and corn. There were 69,000 head of cattle (2006). Poultry raising was also substantial with two hundred head in 2006.

There were 7 banks (2007). The motor vehicle fleet had 13,066 automobiles, 1,281 trucks, 1,255 pickup trucks, and 5,894 motorcycles. The ratio of inhabitant per motor vehicle was 3 vehicles per inhabitant.

Working population by sector (2005) • Transformation industries (508 units): 4,368 workers • Construction (21 units): 974 workers • Commerce (1,447 units): 4,612 workers • Lodging and restaurants (124 units): 339 workers • Transport, storage, communications (132 units): 730 workers • Public administration: 1,694 workers • Health and social services: 512 workers

Tourist Industry In recent years, due to the proximity of the Furnas reservoir tourism has grown substantially. Furnas is an artificial lake fed by the Rio Grande and Sapucaí rivers and has an area of more than 1,400 km2. It is so big—the largest in Brazil when it was built in the 1960s—that it is called the Sea of Mina Gerais. According to the city government site, the city had 7 hotels.