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Ship queue grows in Santos amid inspector shortage

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The delay in issuing phytosanitary certificates for grain shipments and the delay in sending sugar shipments are causing queues at the Port of Santos, the country’s largest. More than 100 ships with goods are waiting at the port. The queues are costing Brazil’s grain exporters $1.2 billion, according to the National Association of Grain Exporters of Brazil (ANEC).According to Sérgio Mendes, ANEC’s executive director, phytosanitary certificates for grain shipments, which used to be issued within 48 hours, now take 10 days to be made available to exporters because of a shortage of agricultural inspectors responsible for releasing the document."The problem is serious," he said, explaining that the number of inspectors in the Ministry of Agriculture is insufficient. "This is causing concern among our members because exporters are not paid for their goods until the certificate is released."To reach at the $1.2 billion figure, ANEC looked at the volume of soybean exports planned for this year, which is 100 million tonnes. Dividing this volume by the amount of soybeans a ship carries (65,000 tonnes) and then dividing by 365 days gives a figure of four ships per day.Considering that each ship carrying soybeans is "worth" $30 million, that’s $120 million in "cash flow" (working capital that companies don’t receive) per day. Since the average delay in obtaining phytosanitary certificates is 10 days, the result is $1.2 billion in "cash flow," since this delay process is continuous, ANEC explained.According to Mr. Mendes, Brazil also loses efficiency in shipping operations compared to its competitors because of the delay in issuing the document. In the United States, for example, certificates are issued within 48 hours."There is no slowness in the work of the auditors, but the team of inspectors has been the same for years, while Brazil is exporting more and more soy, cotton, sugar, and corn. As a result, they are unable to cope with such high demand," he said.According to Janus Pablo Macedo, president of the National Union of Federal Agricultural Tax Auditors (Anffa Sindical), the Port of Santos currently has 26 specialists, 19 of whom are agronomists and therefore qualified to issue the certificate. But eight more are needed to meet the demand. "The professionals are working hard to meet the requirements in Santos, acting as a...

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