Brazil should once again hit the three million tons of cotton mark

Even though it was planted at a time when production costs were at the highest levels in history, Brazilian cotton producers maintained the area and should once again exceed three million tons of fiber in the 2022/2023 harvest. In 20 years, the mark was reached only once, in the 2019/2020 cycle. In the current harvest, Brazilian cotton crops occupied 1,65 million hectares, and the expectation of the Brazilian Association of Cotton Producers (Abrapa) is that productivity will be around 1.827 kilos per hectare. The numbers were released yesterday, March 01, at the 70th meeting of the Sector Chamber of the Cotton and Derivatives Production Chain, at the headquarters of the Ministry of Agriculture, in Brasília.

Although optimistic in relation to the numbers presented by all sectors participating in the Chamber, cotton farmers highlighted that it is still too early to count the estimate as certain, and the climate will be definitive for confirmation. Only recently did the state of Mato Grosso, the largest national producer of cotton, complete the planting of the crop, almost at the limit of the permitted window, due to the delay in the soybean harvest. Crops in Mato Grosso total 1,18 million hectares. In Bahia, the second largest Brazilian producer, the planted area stood at 312 thousand hectares, an increase of 1,8% compared to the 2021/2022 agricultural year, and so far, crops are developing well.

“We are halfway through the cotton cycle and we still need a lot of rain until the end. We depend on productivity to compensate for a crop planted at very high costs, and to have a satisfactory profitability. The cause of the high costs was mainly the rise in fertilizer prices, which were up to four times more expensive than what we were paying. Without this input, crops cannot be formed”, explained the president of the chamber and former president of Abrapa, Júlio Cézar Busato, who, on the occasion, handed over command of the cotton production chain forum to the new president of Abrapa, Alexandre Schenkel. According to Busato, who assumed the vice-presidency of the Instituto Pensar Agropecuária (IPA), fuel prices are already normalizing, and should reduce the pressure on cotton farmers in the following harvest.

Message

For Alexandre Schenkel, president of Abrapa, the Brazilian cotton producer gave an important message to the market. “Not only did we maintain our area, when the situation became unfavorable, we even had a small increase. We have a structure that is specific to cotton and we cannot leave it idle. We believe in cotton farming, we are committed to the market, and, perhaps even sooner than we expected, we will be the first exporter of the product in the world rankings. The world can count on our cotton, which, in addition to scale, has sustainability and traceability”, stated Schenkel.

Sustainability and traceability, by the way, were the theme of the presentation by Abrapa's director of Institutional Relations, Silmara Ferraresi, who showed the evolution of these, which are two of Abrapa's four fundamental commitments, along with quality and promotion. The union of the Abrapa Identification System (SAI) with the Responsible Brazilian Cotton (ABR) program resulted in SouABR. For the first time, worldwide, it became possible to track the entire production chain of a garment, from seed to wardrobe. The innovation was first embraced by retailers Reserva and Renner, and is now open to brands interested and eligible to participate.

Exports

If the first time Brazil harvested more than three million tons of cotton, the logistics to get the product to the market, especially abroad, was a concern proportional to the size of the harvest, this time, exporters and producers are counting on experience, such as positive reference. The National Association of Cotton Producers (Anea) expects to ship approximately 1,71 million tons in 2022/2023. Representing the sector at the 70th meeting of the Chamber, Henrique Snitcovski argues that Brazil has already been able to ship representative volumes, “not just in a single month, but over a longer period, which brings security to the international market, when they need it plan your mixtures in advance in the factories”. Snitcovski credits the joint work of the production sector for the success in shipments with feathers in recent years.

“We created a task force to overcome bottlenecks related to infrastructure and bring more predictability to the organization of the export flow, and, mainly, to promote cotton on the international market, providing more information, transparency and credibility, as well as ensuring supply of the Brazilian product for 12 months, regularly”, he added that this effort is continuous.

Textiles and clothing

Also a member of the chamber, the Brazilian Textile and Clothing Industry Association (Abit) presented an overview of the sector. According to the entity's president, Fernando Pimentel, the textile sector estimates growth of 2,3% for this year. “This is still a first survey, which could change”, warned Pimentel. The textile industry was the one that suffered most last year from the impact of rising production costs. According to Abit, retail consumption in Brazil “has not yet taken off”, due to uncertainties.

The president of the association highlighted the prospects for fiber consumption in the world, with emphasis on so-called technological fabrics, as well as the appreciation of concepts, such as circular economy and sustainability, which represent an opportunity for Brazilian cotton. According to Pimentel, the desire of the national industry is for the country to be able to export more manufactured products and less raw materials. “We would go from receiving two dollars per kilogram of cotton to receiving 20 dollars per kilogram of manufactured cotton”, he pondered.