Abrapa wants greater market share in Thailand

One of the ten largest cotton importers in the world, Thailand was the stop today (04) of the diplomatic “marathon” to promote Brazilian cotton, which has been undertaken within the scope of the Cotton Brazil project initiatives. Launched at the end of last year by the Brazilian Association of Cotton Producers (Abrapa), with Apex Brasil and the support of the National Association of Cotton Exporters (Anea), its objective is to expand markets for national cotton fiber in Asia, to make the country the world's largest exporter of cotton until 2030. The position is currently occupied by the United States. These meetings have been held since August, in each of the project's nine focus countries: China, Bangladesh, Vietnam, Turkey, Pakistan, Indonesia, India, Thailand and South Korea.

Brazil's cotton farming numbers, as well as its competitive differences in quality, sustainability and productivity, were presented to the ambassador in Bangkok, Ana Lucy Gentil Cabral Petersen, the head of the embassy's promotion and marketing department, Willian Santos, and the agricultural attaché Maria Eduarda Serra Machado. Abrapa chaired the meeting, with some of its representatives speaking, once again, from the headquarters of the Brazilian embassy in Singapore, where the entity was led by minister advisor Daniel Pinto.

According to Marcelo Duarte, director of international relations at Abrapa, based in the entity's office in Singapore, Brazil is able to gain more space in Thailand, where its market share currently stands at 15%. “The Thai textile industry is the twelfth largest consumer of feathers in the world, and, despite the impacts of Covid-19, it remains the eighth largest global importer, to which we export 185 thousand tons,” he said. The physical presence in the Asian market and the hand-to-hand that it hopes to do, as soon as circumstances allow, will be very important in the project's goal. “One of the first aspects that we intend to change is the world industry's perception of the quality of our fiber, which, today, is no different from the American one, and is very close to the Australian one, as can be seen in the instrumental analysis parameters that allow us to compare ”, says Marcelo Duarte.

The Cotton Brazil project will be officially launched at the beginning of December, and includes, in addition to the recently opened Abrapa representative office in Asia, marketing, market intelligence and communication actions in the local language and in English in each of the markets where will act. “Brazil managed to double its fiber production in the last three years without having to cut down a single tree. Almost all of its production has national and international sustainability certification, in addition to a productivity of 1,8 kilos of cotton per hectare, which is double that achieved by our biggest competitor. We need to show this to the world and with the help of the embassies, we will do this assertively”, stated the president of Abrapa, Milton Garbugio, present at the videoconference.

The ambassador contextualized Thailand's situation in the pandemic, marked by a relatively low number of cases and deaths. However, Covid, according to her, kept visitors away. Tourism is the country's largest economic vocation, and represents around 20% of GDP. “Thailand will see losses of around 10% of GDP this year, which means the economy has been hit very badly,” she said. For Ana Lucy Petersen, starting international relations work in a context like the current one gives Abrapa a certain advantage, since attention will be highly sought after “when things open up again”. Petersen said that it will be interesting to have a new agricultural product to be promoted in the region. The ambassador and the diplomatic corps in Thailand committed to making efforts to help publicize the national feather, and made the embassy available to producers and exporters for this purpose.