Cooperation between Brazil and Bangladesh should boost the market for Brazilian cotton

The fourth largest market for Brazilian cotton and destination for 12% of all fiber shipped by Brazil to the world, Bangladesh is a priority country for the Brazilian Association of Cotton Producers (Abrapa). The entity's president, Alexandre Schenkel, was one of the representatives of the national exporting economic sectors who participated, on the morning of this Wednesday, February 1st, in the signing of the Memorandum of Understanding between Apex-Brasil and Federation of Bangladesh Chambers of Commerce & Industries (FBCCI), a Bangladeshi institution equivalent to the national development agency.

Among the parties who signed the memorandum, the ceremony was attended by, among others, the Bangladeshi ambassador to Brazil, Sadia Faizunneza, the senior secretary of the Ministry of Commerce of Bangladesh, Tapan Kanti Gosh, and the president of FBCCI, Jashim Uddin. On the Brazilian government side, the Business Director of Apex-Brasil, Ana Paula Repezza, and the Director of the Department of Commerce and Investment Promotion, Ambassador Alex Giacomelli, participated.

The expectation of Apex and FBCCI, with the cooperation agreement, is to promote, strengthen and give visibility to commercial relations between the two countries. Currently, in addition to cotton, Brazil is a representative supplier of other commodities, such as sugar, soybeans and iron ore. Bangladesh exports manufactured products to Brazil, especially textiles.

Growing industry: more cotton

According to the president of FBCCI, Jashim Uddin, in 2024/2025, Bagladesh's textile industry is expected to double in size. “We will need more cotton. Today, we are buying fiber from Brazil, Africa and India, and the memorandum signed here favors trade between us,” he stated. FBCCI represents 80% of Bangladesh's private sector industries, has more than 400 members and around 38 bilateral agreements, such as the one signed in Brasília.

The Bangladeshi institution turns 50 in 2024 and is preparing a major ceremony for which more than 200 foreign delegations are expected to attend. At the memorandum signing ceremony, Brazil was invited to participate in the celebration.

sustainable opportunities

Sustainability, one of the main attributes of Brazilian cotton, was presented as an opportunity for trade between the two countries. The topic is part of Bangladesh's agenda, which has been reinforcing its actions in this regard over the last ten years, with several industrial plants considered “green” already in operation.

In his speech, Alexandre Schenkel highlighted the fact that Brazil is the origin of cotton with the largest share of all lint licensed by the Swiss NGO Better Cotton Initiative (BCI). “Currently, 42% of all cotton licensed by Better Cotton come from Brazilian crops and 86% of all fiber produced in Brazil is certified by the Responsible Brazilian Cotton (ABR) program, which operates in benchmarking with BCI”, he said.

Schenkel also highlighted that, according to the International Cotton Association Committee (Icac), 95% of Brazilian cotton depends solely on rainwater for its production. “The possibility of having this cotton being manufactured in equally sustainable factories in Bangladesh opens up new trade opportunities, makes our customers happy and brings environmental, social and economic gains”, stated the president of Abrapa.

Affinities found

The night before signing the Memorandum of Understanding, Schenkel attended a dinner hosted by the Bangladeshi ambassador and her husband, Michael Winter, at the embassy headquarters. On the occasion, the senior secretary of the Ministry of Commerce of Bangladesh, Tapan Kanti Gosh, and the president of FBCCI, Jashim Uddin, were introduced to representatives of Brazil's private sector. “This preliminary meeting was interesting so that we could strengthen ties and better understand their demands, which are timely for Brazil. Once again, we saw the immense receptivity of the people of Bangladesh. We had already seen this in all the missions to promote Brazilian cotton that we undertook there. We are countries with great similarities and affinities”, concluded Schenkel.