The prospect of exporting cotton through the port of Santarém, in Pará, led the Mato Grosso Association of Cotton Producers (Ampa) to participate in the 23rd Ordinary Meeting of the Port Authority Council of the Port of Santarém on Friday (6). The entity's executive director, Décio Tocantins, showed the participants information about cotton lint production in the State, especially in the northernmost region, and the interest of cotton growers in sending their product to the harbor paraense.
“In the North, there is already an initial project made with a container stuffing operation through Porto Velho (RO) that goes through Manaus (AM). The ship that takes the container to Manaus is the same one that passes through Santarém afterwards. Cotton producers in the north, mainly on the BR-163 from Nova Mutum, are very interested in taking cotton to the north of the country”, ponders the director.
Cotton shipped containers
The operation by containers through the port of Santarém has already happened in previous years, for the transport of wood and other products, but it did not prosper. The cotton being sent through this type of vessel can configure the resumption of the use of this type of storage. That would favor other crops in the State, such as cowpea, for example.
The possibility of sending the products to the port of Pará became more viable with the finalization of the paving of the BR-163 highway in the section between Cuiabá and Santarém.
“This is the new fact, the interconnection of producers from the north of Mato Grosso with Pará, through the BR-163, which brings cargo from the State”, adds Décio Tocantins.
In this context, cotton producers in the BR-163 region, in Mato Grosso. And the municipalities of Sapezal, Campo Novo do Parecis and Campos de Júlio have greater benefit.
Ampa participated in the meeting at the invitation of the president of Porto Seco de Cuiabá, Francisco Antônio de Almeida, and the logistics consultant Luiz Antônio Pagot. Both commented on the viability of the activity and showed enthusiasm with the next steps to be taken for the project to become effective.
“What needs to be understood with regard to shipping with containers is that the port of Docas do Pará, in Santarém, already did this. Today, it has a comparative advantage over products from the middle north of Mato Grosso to tranship here, with sufficient volume.
This meeting was the important beginning of this institutional-commercial relationship”, pondered Luiz Antônio Pagot. Also commenting that the next meeting should be in Belém, at the headquarters of Companhia Docas do Pará so that, later, the project can be taken to Brasília.
investor attraction
The technical assistant of the National Secretariat of Ports and Waterway Transport, Ingrid Pantoja Machado. Present at the meeting, she was also enthusiastic about the project, especially as it enabled investors to enter the Santarém region.
“It is a very interesting project for the region, even for resuming our container handling here, in the port of Santarém, which is currently not operating.
It is yet another way of bringing investors to the region. To leverage the northern arch with the departure of producers through this region of the country”, points out the federal servant.
She also adds that a presentation of the project is expected to the directors of Companhia Docas do Pará. Subsequently, take the debate to the Ministry of Infrastructure. As well as the National Waterway Transport Agency. “. It is necessary to align all these actors with the project that will be presented”.
The president of Porto Seco, who has been monitoring the viability of container transhipment in the region for some years, considered that Ampa's participation in the discussion enriched the viability of the project. “The explanation was very encouraging, including the people from Santarém. Ampa took it to another dimension. This is an extremely viable project, now even more so. I am very excited as I have been working on this study for a long time. We have to make it happen.”
