The prospect of exporting cotton through the port of Santarém, in Pará, led the Mato Grosso Cotton Producers Association (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 participants information about cotton production in the state, especially in the northern region, and the interest of cotton growers in sending their product to the harbor from Pará.
“In the North, there is already an initial project with a container stuffing operation from Porto Velho (RO) that goes to Manaus (AM). The ship that takes the container to Manaus is the same one that passes through Santarém afterwards. Cotton producers in the North, especially those on BR-163, from Nova Mutum, are very interested in taking cotton to the North of the country”, ponders the director.
Cotton shipped in containers
Container operations at the Port of Santarém have already taken place in previous years, for the transportation of wood and other products, but they did not prosper. The cotton being shipped via this type of vessel could lead to the resumption of the use of this type of storage. This would benefit other crops in the state, such as cowpea, for example.
The possibility of sending products to the port of Pará became more viable with the completion of the paving of the BR-163 highway between Cuiabá and Santarém.
“This is a new fact, the interconnection of producers from the north of Mato Grosso with Pará, via BR-163, which brings cargo originating from the State”, adds Décio Tocantins.
In this context, cotton producers in the BR-163 region, in Mato Grosso, and in the municipalities of Sapezal, Campo Novo do Parecis and Campos de Júlio have the greatest 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 feasibility of the activity and expressed enthusiasm for the next steps to be taken to make the project effective.
“What needs to be understood regarding container shipping is that the port of Docas do Pará, in Santarém, already did this. Today, it has a comparative advantage in products from the mid-north of Mato Grosso to transship 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 the project can later be taken to Brasília.
Investor attraction
The technical assistant of the National Secretariat of Ports and Waterway Transport, Ingrid Pantoja Machado, who was present at the meeting, was also enthusiastic about the project, especially because it allows investors to enter the Santarém region.
“It is a very interesting project for the region, even to resume our container movement here, in the port of Santarém, which is currently not operating.
It is another way to bring investors to the region. To leverage the northern arc with the departure of producers from this region of the country”, points out the federal employee.
She also adds that the project is expected to be presented to the directors of Companhia Docas do Pará. The debate will then be taken to the Ministry of Infrastructure and the National Waterway Transportation Agency. “All these stakeholders need to be aligned with the project that will be presented.”
The president of Porto Seco, who has been monitoring the feasibility of container transshipment in the region for a few years, considered that Ampa’s participation in the discussion enhanced the project’s viability. “The explanation was very encouraging, including for the people of Santarém. Ampa brought another dimension. This is an extremely viable project, and now even more so. I am very excited, because I have been working on this study for a long time. We have to make it happen.”