Brazilian Delegation Visits Egypt & Turkiye To Promote Cotton

A delegation from the Brazilian Cotton Growers Association (Abrapa) visited Brazil and Turkiye from May 12 to 19 to begin Cotton Brazil’s international mission in 2024.

The Cotton Brazil program represents the Brazilian cotton production chain on a global scale.

This program was conceived by Abrapa and is run in partnership with the Brazilian Trade and Investment Promotion Agency (Apex Brasil) and the National Association of Cotton Exporters (Anea).

“Cotton Brazil’s priority countries include Egypt and Türkiye. As Egypt is a newer trading partner, the schedule there was longer,” Cotton Brazil reported.

“We wanted to understand needs of Egypt a little better, meet the main players and establish dialogue with main representative organizations in the sector,” Abrapa President, Alexandre Schenkel.

Schenkel coordinated the delegation, which, in addition to Abrapa representatives, included representatives from Anea, Apex-Brasil and the Bahia State Cotton Growers Association (Abapa).

The schedule began with the delegation meeting the Cotton Arbitration and Testing General Organization (CATGO) in Alexandria.

CATGO is Egypt’s most important arbitration and cotton testing organisation for both cotton exports and imports.

On the same day, the Brazilians held meetings with the leaders of the Alexandria Cotton Exporters Association (Alcotexa).

In Cairo, an edition of the ‘Cotton Brazil Outlook’ seminar was held, in which both the current status of the 2024 Brazilian crop and the prospects for the 2025 crop were presented.

The Egypt visit ended with a technical visit to spinning mills, the Egyptian Ministry of Agriculture and the Cotton Research Centre.

On May 17, the Brazilian group headed to Antalya, Türkiye, where another edition of ‘Cotton Brazil Outlook’ seminar was held for a select audience of industrialists, executives and investors.

Globally recognized for high-quality cotton, Egypt has been facing a downward trend in both acreage and yields over the past 15 years. For this reason, it has increased its imports.

In the 2022-23 season, the country bought 99.5 ton of cotton from Brazil, but from August 2023 to March 2024, the volume went up to 8,521 tons.

So in these eight months, imports of Brazilian cotton increased 85-fold compared to the 12 months of the previous marketing year.

Türkiye, on the other hand, invests in imports to supply its thriving fabrics industry and since it is the fourth largest exporter of clothing in the world.

In the 2022/23 season, the country was the fifth largest importer of cotton worldwide, buying 165,000 tons of Brazilian cotton. Of this, Brazilian cotton accounted for 18 percent of all imports.