Bahia surpasses record of three million cotton analyzes in 2019

In 2019, the Abapa Fiber Analysis Center surpassed the mark of three million classified samples. The unit, based in Luís Eduardo Magalhães, in Western Bahia, recorded a total of 3.095.877 analyzes using High Volume Instrument (HVI) equipment and 331.535 thousand visual classification. This result guaranteed the record number of cotton samples analyzed in a single harvest. The classification of fiber quality is essential for the commercialization of fiber in the national and international consumer market.

For the president of Abapa, Júlio Cézar Busato, quality has been one of the main differentiators of the fiber produced in Western Bahia. “Investment by producers in classification is essential to attest to the consumer market the quality and appropriate destination for the most varied uses of the fiber in the industry”, he explains. The Abapa laboratory is part of the Standard Brasil HVI (SBRHVI) program, which standardizes the classification of feathers in the country, providing security and credibility for Brazilian cotton. Throughout the harvest, 106 professionals took turns during three shifts, 24 hours a day, uninterruptedly to ensure that producers have the results of analyzes in hand to prove the quality of the fiber.

The second largest cotton producer in Brazil, the growth in the number of analyzes in Bahia is related to the 15% increase in production in the last 2018/2019 harvest, which harvested a total of 615 tons of cotton lint. Thanks to HVI equipment, intrinsic characteristics of the textile sector evaluation are analyzed, such as elongation, resistance, uniformity, reflectance, yellowing, maturity, sheet grade and reliability index. The state began planting the new cotton crop in December last year, and production is expected to remain at the same rates as the last harvest.