The Brazilian Cotton Chain - Abrapa

THE REVIVAL OF BRAZILIAN
COTTON PRODUCTION AND
CURRENT PORTRAIT
“Our greatest glory is not in never falling, but in
rising every time we fall.” This phrase is attributed
to the Chinese thinker Confucius, who lived
in the sixth century BC and was the creator of
Confucianism – the ethical, social and political
philosophy that became official doctrine of the
Chinese empire between the third century BC and
the third century AD. To Confucius, the people of
his day had lost core values that needed to be
regained for the construction of a new society
based on humanism, courtesy, wisdom, integrity,
loyalty and honesty.
Fall and reconstruction: exactly what was needed
for the cotton sector to re-invent itself as one
of the most modern, organized and competitive
sectors in Brazilian agribusiness. In the early
1980s, Brazil was one of the major world
producers and exporters of cotton fiber. At the
time, this crop was largely regulated by the State,
whose agricultural policy guaranteed cotton
growers access to subsidized credit, minimum
marketing prices and government purchases for
the formation of buffer stocks. In the commercial
realm, import tariffs created a large market reserve
for domestic growers. Thus, the cotton sector
was sustained, and oblivious to international
competition.
In the second half of the 1980s, the scenario
began to change. First, the boll weevil pest
arrived in Brazil, which literally destroyed entire
plantations, and was one of the main reasons for
the continuous reduction of cotton croplands in
the 1980s and 1990s. The final blow, which led
to the greatest crisis experienced by the sector
in its more than four centuries of history, was
the turnaround in the economic and trade policy
in Brazil. In the early 1990s, trade liberalization
exposed cotton producers and the domestic textile
industry to competition from imports.
Ultimately, the productive sector was not
prepared, and there was no government planning
for the transition. Thus, two of the main sectors
that generate more employment and income in
Brazil – the cotton and textile industries – were
hit hard, resulting in production losses, mass
layoffs, and major mortality of enterprises. Just
to illustrate, cotton production fell from roughly
970,000 tonnes in 1984 to 420,000 tonnes in
1992. Exports, which in 1982 reached more than
200,000 tonnes, reached only 1,000 tonnes in
1993. That same year, Brazil imported 407,000
tonnes, a figure that in 1984 was four million
tonnes.