Issue 1 2017

24 LATIN AMERICA NEWS / Issue 1 2017 , Brazil’s Textile and Apparel Industry Sets to Rebound As the only Latin American economy that holds a prominent position in the global textile and apparel market, Brazil has experienced recent sluggishness in its textile and apparel industrymainly caused by the country’s economic downturn. However, as the economy starts to recover, Brazil’s textile and apparel industry is also expected to bounce back. Details about Brazil’s growing textile and apparel exports and how technical textiles helps Brazil to revitalise its textile sector are some of this week’s top stories on BizVibe. Brazil’s textile and apparel exports achieve new success After several years of industrial downward, Brazil’s textile and apparel industry has finally achieved some success in terms of its textile and apparel exports, especially exports to Arabic markets. Figures shows that Brazilian exports of textiles and apparel to Arab countries have surged to USD 3 million during the first two months of 2017, increasing by 87.5% from the same period a year ago. Currently, Arab countries are some of Brazil’s largest markets for textile and apparel exports, particularly for segments such as party wear, children’s wear and beach wear. The United Arab Emirates had the highest imports of Brazilian textiles and apparel, followed by Algeria, Egypt, Morocco and Lebanon. Technical textiles facilitate the recovery of Brazil’s textile industry Due to powerful investments in recent years, Brazil is steadily rising as a leading global technical textile producer and one of the largest consumers for disposable hygiene textiles. Disposable hygiene textiles demand in the country has experienced double digit growth over the past few years. The consumption of technical textiles in Brazil is still low, but the growth of non-woven and technical textiles usage in Brazil has risen at a double-digit rate annually. With the increased capacity of the country’s technical textile productions, along with growing demand, Brazil is expected to witness a bigger growth in its technical textiles sector in near future. In addition to Brazil’s textiles and apparel industry, BizVibe is home to over 150,000 textiles and apparel companies across all sectors. www.bizvibe.com