The Cotton Brazil Outlook 2022 event, held in Dubai on February 23, consolidated Brazil as a steady cotton supplier for Pakistan, the world’s third largest cotton consumer and fourth largest importer. 

The possibility of accessing updated information on the Brazilian crop, including export figures, and of watching the round table discussions gathering Brazilian cotton growers and Pakistani industry leaders, was very well received by a public made up of more than 100 companies from the Pakistani textile and cotton sectors. 

Cotton Brazil Outlook 2022 anticipate closer ties between global markets and the Brazilian cotton industry 

The Cotton Brazil Outlook event was organized by the Cotton Brazil program, an initiative by the Brazilian Cotton Growers Association (Abrapa), in partnership with the Brazilian Trade and Investment Promotion Agency (Apex-Brasil) and the National Cotton Shippers Association (Anea). The event was part of Expo 2022 parallel programming, in Dubai.  

“We started growing the ‘new’ Brazilian cotton 25 years ago, and only recently have we become major exporters. We can still double the volume for the foreign market, reaching 4 million tons. This is our goal”, said Abrapa’s president, Júlio Cesar Busato. 

Global demand will be met with innovations 

“Brazil and the United States are our biggest suppliers. Today we saw that the Brazilian cotton industry has evolved considerably in recent years. I believe that the next step is to improve access to HVI testing results before shipments,” suggested Adil Bashir, industry leader and former president of the All Pakistan Textile Mills Association (APTMA). He took part in a round table in which Brazilian growers and Pakistani executives asked questions and exchanged impressions about both countries. 

Adil Bashir’s suggestion was already on Abrapa’s priority agenda. “We are developing a certification program for Brazilian cotton together with the Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Supply (MAPA) that will ensure even greater reliability and transparency for our HVI testing. Due to the scale of the initiative, we will have more news on this front by 2023”, says Busato. 

Brazil and Pakistan maintain a collaborative relationship 

The proximity between the two links of the chain favors the opening of more markets and the emergence of new business opportunities, as explained by Marcelo Duarte Monteiro, director of international relations at Abrapa and head of the Cotton Brazil program: “Pakistan’s industries are planning to expand their production and are expected to invest billions. For this to be accomplished, they will need more cotton than they already consume”, stresses Marcelo. 

The event, which was also attended by Rafaela Albuquerque, project manager, and Márcio Rodrigues, agribusiness manager at Apex-Brasil, allowed the exchange of important information about the Brazilian market. “We didn’t know that Brazil was the largest single supplier of Better Cotton, for example. This is relevant data and points to a great future ahead”, said Rehman Naseem, CEO of Fazal Cloth Mills Limited, one of Pakistan’s largest spinning and weaving mills. 

Better Cotton means cotton licensed by the Better Cotton Initiative (BCI), a global non-profit organization focused on fostering the sustainable and responsible production of cotton lint around the globe. In Brazil, it operates in partnership with Abrapa. In 2020, Brazil produced 37% of the total volume certified by the BCI. 

Marco Antonio Aluisio (ANEA); Vitor Horita (Horita Group / Abapa); Alessandra Zanotto (Zanotto Group / Abapa); Miguel Faus (ANEA)

About the Cotton Brazil Outlook 

The Cotton Brazil Outlook 2022 event was one of the activities of the first Vendor Mission carried out by Abrapa since the beginning of the pandemic. After Dubai, the Brazilian delegation, composed of cotton growers and exporters, went to Turkey. 

Learn more about the previous events HERE