By Mike McCue
Brazil has long been a player in the global cotton market, but only in recent years has its exploded into one of the top producing countries in the world. With its bountiful rains, an abundance of sunshine, and extremely rich and fertile soil, the South American country is a farmerΆs dream, making it a major player in many crops, including corn, soybeans, coffee and citrus fruits.
But no country can escape the ups and downs of the market – or of weather. Both have put a dent in BrazilΆs expected cotton production this year. At press time, the harvest is just beginning, but production is expected to drop to about 7 million bales for 2012/13 – a very respectable total, to be sure, but a decrease of more than 23% from last yearΆs all-time best of 9.1 million bales and the 9 million bales produced in 2010/11. Even at 7 million bales, though, this yearΆs production is more than 28% higher than the total from 2009/10. The decrease in the area harvested for 2012/13 is expected to drop about 23% to 1.1 million hectares, and extreme pressure from competing food crops could reduce next yearΆs acreage by as much as 30% to 40%.
Despite the expected ups and downs, Brazil has no shortage of positives to rely on. Its natural resources – ideal for cotton production due to the natural combination of rain, sun and soil – are virtually unparalleled anywhere else in the world. And while its cotton production and acreage are expected to take a major hit, its mill industry is doing well and the countryΆs cotton consumption should jump about 6% from last year to about 4.3 million bales.
But perhaps the cotton industryΆs greatest strength lies in its growers. The cotton fields before harvest are a veritable ocean of white bolls, covering the landscape as far as the eye can see. They are well-funded, knowledgeable and dedicated to growing the fiber.
The combination of farmersΆ innovation and growing conditions are so powerful that BrazilΆs practice of high-density growing is being adopted by the Indian government in an attempt to raise its own lagging yields. A typical field of Indian cotton contains 4,000 to 5,000 plants per acre – less than half of the 8,000 to 9,000 plants found on each acre of planted land in Brazil. Those numbers explain why the yield in IndiaΆs biggest cotton-producing state, Maharashtra, averages less than 500 kg per hectare, while BrazilΆs yield of 1,500 kg per hectare doubles the average global yield.
Getting Up to Speed, Fast
While BrazilΆs cotton industry is a heavyweight in the global market, itΆs still fairly young in many parts of the country. If Mato Grosso (BrazilΆs top cotton-producing state) were its own country, it would rank eighth in the world in production, but farmers have only been growing cotton there for about 20 years. While they are learning quickly and take advantage of the latest available technologies, many farmers are still trying to refine the growing process and adapt it to BrazilΆs unique climate. As one Brazilian cotton veteran said, “There are a lot of cotton growers, but not many true cotton people.”
The key to cotton in Brazil, as “true cotton people” have learned, is timing – and due to variables such as the weather, itΆs a little more art than science. For example, if a grower harvests his cotton just a couple of days after it rains, the fiber will have a muted, creamy color. If he waits 10 or so days after the rain, however, the bolls will have dried completely and the cotton will return to its more desirable, bright white color.
In addition, growers must apply a defoliant to their crops between 15 to 20 days before picking. The defoliant kills the leaves and exposes the bolls to the machine picker. Apply the defoliant too early and the leaves will die before picking begins, which exposes the fiber to the elements, damaging color and quality. Apply the defoliant too late and the leaves wonΆt have died and fallen to the ground, so theyΆll end up in the fiber, greatly increasing trash content.
In Brazil, more than in many other places, you simply canΆt replace experience. Two common “beginnerΆs mistakes” that growers make include:
Overfertilizing. Using lots of fertilizer produces tall, impressive-looking plants … but those big plants donΆt actually produce any more bolls than shorter plants do and, in fact, are a drawback when it comes to harvesting the fiber. Virtually all growers use machine picking, but tall plants are actually more difficult for the highly calibrated equipment to manage. In this one case at least, bigger is definitely not better.
Protecting fiber from contamination. Mato Grosso is extremely rural, with most cotton fields bordered by dusty dirt roads. During the course of the growing season, dust coats the cotton plants at the edges of the field – an especially big problem when the bolls burst and the fiber is exposed. Experienced growers have learned to plant a narrow strip of some other crop, such as millet, to shield the cotton crop from that dust. In addition, theyΆve learned that the best way to harvest cotton is not in long, parallel rows, but rather, to pick it in a circular pattern. This prevents the narrow strip of dust-infested cotton around the outside of a field from mixing with the more pristine fiber found in the center.
Another trick of the trade that the industry has adopted happens at the gin. At press time, the harvest was just arriving at the ginneries, which operate almost around the clock until the harvest is over. They only stop for about three hours a day, usually around dusk, which is the time of peak energy consumption across the country. The gins need to be cleaned daily, and the saw blades need to be checked and adjusted. Generally speaking, when cotton prices are very high – as they were last year – the saw blades are loosened to preserve the fiber characteristics and maximize the quality. When cotton prices are low – as they are today – they tighten the blades to ensure they get as much lint as possible off of the seed.
Suffice to say, the blades are being kept much tighter today than they were a year ago.
Logistics Remain a Barrier
ItΆs a built-in logistical problem when cotton is grown 2,000 kilometers or more from the ports it is shipped from, and the problem is magnified when there is little established infrastructure for transporting it. Poorly maintained dirt roads add both time and expense to the process, and while thereΆs been talk of building a more efficient railway system for years, thereΆs been little action on that front.
Costs are on the rise due to higher tolls on the roads and increasing fuel prices, and recent legislation has reduced the number of hours that truck drivers can work each week. Insurance costs are spiking as well due to a rash of fires in recent years, and even after overcoming all of those challenges, cotton shipments often bottleneck at the ports. There are only a handful of ports with the capabilities needed to store, warehouse and ship cotton, and they simply arenΆt able to keep up with the increases in volume.
While BrazilΆs agriculture industry and government continue to look for solutions, the sheer size of the changes needed, combined with increasing costs and regulation, make it likely that logistics will remain one of the countryΆs top challenges for years to come.
McCue is the editor for Cotton International magazine. A 20-year veteran of the national trade press, he joined CI in 2010. During his career, he has won a variety of editorial awards for covering industries such as food and drug packaging, the U.S. healthcare system, and sales and marketing management.