SLC Agrícola S A : Cotton harvest in Bahia reaches 20% of the planted area and total estimate of 522.5 thousand tons of cotton plume

Cotton harvest in Bahia reaches 20% of the planted area and total estimate of 522.5 thousand tons of cotton plume

Associação Baiana dos Produtores de Algodão [Bahia Association of Cotton Producers] (Abapa) presented this week, during the 67th meeting of the Sectoral Chamber of Cotton and Derivatives, the figures for the 2021/2022 harvest, which project a harvest of 522.5 thousand tons of processed cotton (cotton plume). The average productivity in the state should be 275 half bushels per hectare (equivalent to 1,700 kilos of cotton plume/ha), compared to the 311 half bushels per hectare, calculated in a previous survey, which indicates a reduction of 12% compared to the previous forecast, a reflection of the weather conditions. For the president of Abapa, Luiz Carlos Bergamaschi, however, despite the irregular distribution of rainfall having affected some municipalities, in others, supply was consistent, a fact that, along with irrigation, helped to support the average yield: "In Bahia, the main problem was the lack of rainfall at the end of the cycle, especially in the municipalities of Jaborandi, Correntina and part of São Desidério," he explains.

In the current harvest, Bahia planted around 309 thousand hectares of the crop, 303 thousand hectares in the West region and 5.9 thousand hectares in the Southwest. So far, the state has harvested around 20% of the planted cotton.

The 67th meeting of Mapa´s Sectoral Chamber of Cotton and Derivatives was held at Comandatuba Island, in Ilhéus/BA, on June 24, as part of the annual event of Associação Nacional dos Exportadores de Algodão [National Association of Cotton Exporters] (Anea). At the meeting, which brings together the leaders of the production chain of the commodity, it was disclosed that national cotton production should be around 2.6 million tons of cotton plume.