Interaction Meet of Senior Management Team from SLC Agricola, Brazil with ICAR-CIRCOT team and other stakeholders

The senior management team comprising of Mr. Aurelio Pavinato, CEO, Mr. Guilherme Heiden, Analyst, and Mr. Roberto Acauan, Chief Sales Officer of SLC, Agricola Brazil visited ICAR-CIRCOT on September 16, 2024. The meeting was coordinated by their Indian representative Mr. Sagar Kaushik, COO, UPL, Ltd. Stakeholders and industrialists such as Shri P. K. Agarwal, Former CMD, CCI, Dr. G. S. Nadiger, Research Advisor (SASMIRA) & Former Director of Laboratories (Textile Committee), Shri P. D. Mepani, from CAI, Shri Rishit Dholakia from Wakefield Inspection Service, Shri Nitesh Jangir, from Arvind Ltd., Bhopal and Shri Aniruddha Jain from M/s. Bajaj Steel Industries Ltd were also present.  The CIRCOT team was led by the Director, Dr. S. K. Shukla and comprised of Heads of Division, Principal Scientists, Senior Scientists and Technical Officers.

Shri Luv Bajaj, MD, M/s Bajaj Steel Industries Ltd., Dr. M. K. Sharma, CEO & Whole time Director, M/s Bajaj Steel Industries Ltd., Nagpur and Shri Vineet Kumar Mohota, Director (Finance), Gimatex Industries Pvt. Ltd., Hinganghat, Nagpur attended the meeting online. 

Dr. Shukla presented about the recent activities at ICAR-CIRCOT and also briefed about cotton production, productivity, consumption and the export-import scenario of cotton from India. Mr. Pavinato, briefed about his organisation SLC, Agricola which is the prime cotton production and export company in Brazil. He mentioned that the cotton cultivation area in Brazil is around 2 million hectares with a production capacity of 128 lakh bales of 480 pounds each, which increased the cotton yield from 1800 to 2000 per hectare (approx.). He also informed that about 80% of the cotton is available for export. He elaborated about the good quality of cotton produced by Brazil with minimum cost of production and the competitive rate of cotton from Brazil compared to cotton from USA and Australia. He expressed the interest to export more Brazilian cotton to India in future.  

Dr. M. K. Sharma shared his views on technology intervention in ginning to reduce the short fibre content in Indian cotton. Shri Vineet Mohota informed that he has imported Brazilian cotton this season, and expressed the concern about the delay in the transportation of the cotton to India. He suggested creating a duty-free warehouse facility in Indian to store the Brazilian cotton to reduce the time interval of transport from Brazil. Shri Mepani presented about the cotton qualities available in India. 

The delegates from Brazil were interested to know about the cost of cotton production in India and the scenario about the import of Brazilian cotton by India vis-à-vis the American and Australian cotton which India is currently importing more. They gave an assurance that the technology in cotton production in Brazil to address the short fibre content and other issues, will be addressed to suit the Indian requirement. The team visited the Nanocellulose pilot plant and discussed about its special characteristics and various applications.