Brazil Texfair bustling – and growing for 2011

-- Home Textiles Today, 5/19/2010 1:04:00 PM

Blumenau, Brazil – The 11th annual Texfair here this week is in full swing and boasting its strongest showing of Brazil´s home textiles manufacturers and suppliers, with many of the majors making significant investments in new and larger booths for this year´s event and beyond.

Major manufacturers including Coteminas (Springs Global’s well-known Brazilian brand), Karsten, Teka, and Buettner, among others, have created large and elaborate showroom booths – in the case of Alternburg, for example, using recycled wood for the exterior to highlight the company´s new lines of eco-friendly linens.

Brazil´s textiles and apparel industry association, ABIT, which sponsors the annual event, said that based on demands from home textiles manufacturers and suppliers, Texfair is being moved for the 2011 event into its own venue, separate of apparel exhibitors. The fair currently comprises about 70% home textiles companies and 30% apparel.

According to Rafael Cervone, director of TexBrasil, the Brazilian fashion export program, “We are creating a separate home textiles show to position it as the main home textiles show in all of Latin America. We want it to focus only on home textiles, making it more attractive to international buyers.”

He added that both international buyers and Brazilian companies in home textiles have been requesting a new and separate venue.

“We are offering a national show to the international buyers, and we are very well prepared to service these buyers,” he continued.

While about five years ago many Brazilian home textiles companies partially or entirely suspended exports to U.S. because of unfavorable exchange rates between the reais and the U.S. dollar, Brazil´s economic boom is generating strong results for home textiles suppliers.

In U.S.dollars, the total value of Brazilian textiles exports in 2009 was $1.85 billion (or $1.2 billion excluding cotton fiber), with the number of bedding, bath, and table linens pieces exported last year up 2.1%.