The main bottleneck that generates the current situation of delays in the release of goods from Santa Catarina ports is the limited number of federal employees, considering the growing demand from SC’s foreign trade. This is the diagnosis after a meeting organized by the Federation of Industries of SC (FIESC) with sector leaders last week.
“This is a demand that FIESC has been making to the federal government for more than a decade. It is not possible to think about increasing the volume of cargo handled in SC ports without considerably increasing the number of federal inspectors from the Ministry of Agriculture and IBAMA. These bodies are essential to foreign trade processes and their contingents are undersized”, says the president of FIESC, Mario Cezar de Aguiar.
Renata Schmidt, head of the Vigiagro unit on the coast of SC, explains that today there are 340 tax auditors in Brazil at the agency, of which 18 are in Santa Catarina. “It is a limited number, considering the importance of foreign trade for Brazil and Santa Catarina”, she explains. She reinforces that there are 60 vacancies open in the unified competition for Vigiagro tax auditors, and the need would be 400. “In Santa Catarina, the need was 25, but we managed to get seven vacancies in the competition”, she highlighted.
Measures to mitigate
In an effort to mitigate the impacts of the lack of professionals and speed up the release of cargo, the Vigiagro unit on the coast of SC put the SHIVA Madeira system into operation. Renata explains that initially the implementation would begin with a pilot project in Itajaí, but the need to carry out inspections led to the implementation also in Itapoá, where it is already operating 100% and in the other inspected areas. In Itajaí there are still adjustments to be made to speed up the process.
MAPA has also provided employees to task forces, in order to contribute to flow and agility in inspections, informed MAPA’s deputy superintendent in SC and head of the Agricultural Defense division, André Rabello Vallim.
Port of Itajaí
The superintendent of the Port of Itajaí, Fábio da Veiga, stated that the situation of the temporary concession of the terminal to Mada Araújo may be reviewed by the National Waterway Transport Agency (Antaq) if the company does not meet the agreed requirements. He also informed that there is a forecast of investments of R$25 million by the federal government for the maintenance of the port, especially to fulfill the obligations of the dredging contract. According to him, the appeal would require similar compensation from the city of Itajaí.
Dredging and larger ships
Another worrying situation that demands urgent attention is the need for frequent maintenance dredging in the Itajaí Port Complex, which covers the ports of Itajaí and Navegantes. The assessment was made by the president of the Transport and Logistics Chamber of FIESC, Egídio Martorano, and corroborated by the executives of Portonave and the Port of Itapoá. “We are experiencing a challenging situation. Dredging is essential so that the operation does not become precarious”, highlighted Portonave’s commercial manager, Alesandro Zen.
The CEO of the Port of Itapoá, Cássio Schreiner, points out that the terminal, together with the Port of São Francisco do Sul, requests the adaptation of the access channel to serve larger ships. “R$300 million would be needed to deepen the external access channel, allowing the ports to receive ships with deeper drafts”, explains Schreiner.
For Zen, it is necessary to prepare Santa Catarina’s ports to receive larger ships, so that the state does not lose its attractiveness and logistical competitiveness. The CEO of the Port of Itapoá highlighted the need to join forces so that these demands come to fruition. “If we have ports prepared to receive larger ships, before Santos, we will have much more competitiveness for our importers and exporters”, highlights Schreiner.
The Secretary of Ports, Airports and Railways of the State government, Beto Martins, highlighted that the State government is working to find a solution to adapt SC ports to larger ships.
Environmental licenses
Difficulties with environmental licensing were also included in today’s diagnosis as obstacles to competitiveness, both in terms of licenses for dredging and for the operation of expanding the storage area of the Itapoá port terminal, which depend on Ibama. The agency is in standard operation and, admittedly, also needs more professionals to meet demand. There are 239 analysts for 3,300 processes.
The president of FIESC asked the parliamentarians present at the meeting, senator Esperidião Amin and federal deputy and coordinator of the Santa Catarina Parliamentary Forum, Valdir Cobalchini, to act to facilitate the increase in the necessary contingent of MAPA so that the competitiveness of SC ports is not reduced. affected.
