Brazilian meat industry urges government to resolve freight crisis
Agricultural entities in Brazil are urging government officials to address the lack of ships and containers. The private sector movement is being led by Instituto Pensar Agro (IPA) and comprises entities such as the Council of Coffee Exporters of Brazil (Cecafé), the Brazilian Association of Animal Protein (ABPA), Brazilian Association of Meat Exporting Industries (Abiec), Brazilian Association of Producers of Cotton (Abrapa), Brazilian Association of Slaughterhouses (Abrafrigo), Confederation of Agriculture and Livestock of Brazil (CNA), the Brazilian Association of Corn Producers (Abramilho), among others. "The impacts perceived by the (maritime) crisis on the Brazilian agricultural sector are diffuse and tend to severely affect the internal production chain and export activities," stated the entities in the document sent to the Ministry of Infrastructure and the Ministry of Agriculture.
"To address the lack of ships and containers, the current scenario requires a contingency plan on the part of shipowners operating in Brazil", added the letter. According to Ricardo Santin, president of ABPA, more expensive and time-consuming freight is making the sector to lose opportunities in opening new markets or to increase its presence to current destinations for meat exports. "Exports are taking place, but volumes could be higher if there were not these operational difficulties in accessing containers and the high cost, which reduces our competitiveness. Those who have longer contracts have been able to export, despite the high cost of logistics", said Santin. He also stated that small and medium enterprises are the ones that suffer most from this crisis.
"We are overcoming these operational difficulties, but the room for advancement would be greater if there were no container crisis and the flow was regularized. We are not waiting for the government to take a container out of the drawer. It is a warning to the government that the foreign exchange revenue and the volume exported by the sector could be greater if the structure were better," added Mr. Santin.
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