Brazilian cotton producers use certification to gain new markets

Brazilian cotton’s high quality has propelled the country to become the world’s fourth-largest producer and second-largest exporter. The country aims to become the world’s largest cotton exporter by 2030. Producers have embraced obtaining certification as a tool to enhance their market share by proving they follow responsible production and distribution standards. According to figures from the Brazilian Association of Cotton Producers (Abrapa), certified output accounts for 84% of the harvest.

See below the track record of Brazilian cotton exports from January 2021 to June 2022. The data are from Datamar’s DataLiner.

Cotton exports from Brazil | January 2019 – June 2022 | WTMT

Source: DataLiner (click here to request a demo)

The Brazilian Association of Technical Norms (ANT) is one of the pioneer certificate-granting institutions behind the Responsible Brazilian Cotton program (ABR). The institution has already certified farms in Mato Grosso, Mato Grosso do Sul, and Maranhão in the 21/22 harvest. “The certification of cotton-producing farms, based on the ABR Program, is a passport to the globalized market, which has been increasingly pressured by the demands of conscious consumers who intend to leave a better world for future generations and, because of that, seek beyond quality and price, explains the president of ABNT, Mario William Esper.

Voluntary certification enables the Brazilian product to accumulate value through an official certificate of conformity. In addition, voluntary certification inside the country helps the productive sector to highlight product quality attributes, providing more information to the consumer.

This kind of partnership with cotton growers began in 2007 when the Institute Algodão Social (IAS) created the “socially correct cotton” seal in partnership with ABNT, which served to prove the adherence to labor and environmental standards in the production of cotton in Mato Grosso.

Since then, ABNT has been acting as a certification body for cotton-producing farms. “With each harvest, we show the evolution process for each production unit in their search for reaching an ideal level of compliance. This strategy has shown excellent results not only in terms of legal security of employment contracts, improvement of work safety and life quality for workers and their families but especially in adding a certificate of good socio-environmental origin to cotton,” reinforces the president.

The criteria to obtain the ABR certificate, of which ABNT is one of the certifiers, are divided into the fields of prohibition of child and forced or slave-like labor, prohibition of unworthy or degrading work, regularity of employment contract, job security, prohibition of discrimination against people and freedom of association.

Source: Agrolink

To read the full original article, please go to: https://www.agrolink.com.br/noticias/certificacao-abre-mercados-para-o-algodao-brasileiro_469641.html

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