Opportunity
There is a huge window of opportunity for a significant increase in cotton movement through the Port of Salvador, believes Grégoire Nègre, cotton trader at ECOM Agroindustrial Corp. Ltd. He spoke about the company’s experience in using the port terminal during the X Logistics Seminar, which was moderated by the editor of this column. The company is one of the five world leaders in the cotton market and a global leader in the movement of cocoa and coffee. The executive says that the Port of Santos will always be an important exit channel for agricultural commodities, but emphasizes that it already operates very close to maximum capacity there – contrary to what is seen here. “We don’t have another option as good as Salvador to deal with this”, he believes. According to him, in 2021, the company moved, between the months of June and October, 158 containers through Salvador, reaching 774 in 2022 and now, in 2023, it has already registered 1590. He highlights the increase in the capacity to prepare cotton for export, through a process called stuffing. The Wilson Sons group should go from the current 17 containers per day to 35. It highlights industry projections that the country, currently the second largest exporter in the world, should take first place from the United States in, at most, five years.
The company installed an area in Luís Eduardo Magalhães, in the west of Bahia, with capacity to store more than 300 thousand bales of cotton. During the harvest period, around 100 thousand bales are moved, he says. “The problem is that until recently almost nothing was exported here through the Port of Salvador”, he comments. Grégoire Nègre highlighted the sophistication of Brazilian rural producers. “Around the world, we offer the services of our agronomists to producers, but here producers already have such a high technical level, that we changed our way of operating and started to focus on financial services”, he explains. “We have already negotiated prices for the 2025 harvest with Brazilian producers, I can guarantee that it is the only market in the world where you will see this,” he says.
Micro and small industries in Bahia, with revenues of up to R$4.8 million, can participate in seven projects that focus on increasing competitiveness, through Procompi. Across the country, there will be 98 projects, in which CNI will inject around R$24 million by 2026, together with Sebrae. Bahian projects address modernization of the manufacturing system for bags and leather accessories, foreign trade, training of the mining supply chain to adopt ESG criteria, strengthening leadership in Bahian industries, among other issues.
Abapa is intensifying the actions of its Mechanized Patrol, to complete the paving of Estrada do Café, in Western Bahia, before the arrival of the rains now forecast for November in the region. The machines are working at three points along the 57.2 km stretch. The work, which began in July, aims to definitively resolve a historical demand for improving the local road to facilitate the flow of the harvest and traffic for those who need to pass. along the stretch, especially during the rainy season. Since 2017, the service has paved 265 kilometers of roads.
The largest fair for innovation, agricultural technology and business generation in Bahia, e-Agro starts tomorrow, at the Salvador Convention Center. The event opens its doors to the public at 1pm, and the official opening ceremony takes place at 6:30pm. The expectation is that more than 10 thousand people will visit the site over the three days of the event and that around 2.5 thousand people will be trained per day. It is also estimated that business generation will exceed the R$ 15 million mark, with the rounds and through the virtual auction and the sales of exhibitors. In the past four editions, the event brought together 200 exhibitors and had more than 40 thousand visitors and more than R$100 million in business generated.
