BRAZIL, August 20, 2012 -- Brazil's growing middle class has created an expanding demand for nonwoven consumer products that is helping attract the foreign direct investment required to develop new plants and distribution networks. Investment in the sector has been deterred by so-called ‘Brazil costs’, which include poor infrastructure, extensive red tape and high taxes.
During the past decade, an estimated 40 million Brazilians have risen out of poverty and entered a middle-class with a strong consumer spending culture. And with a birth rate of 17.79 births per 1,000 people, according to the latest figures from the USA’s Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), Brazil is literally a fertile market for nonwoven products. Almost half of the demand for nonwoven products in Brazil (40%) comes in the form of diapers and other sanitary items such as baby wipes, with the remainder being focused on the mattress industry, agriculture, and medical industries. Increased trade between Brazil and China is also tapping Brazil’s nonwovens market. The Asian giant has become Brazil’s biggest trading partner, and China is the biggest consumer of Brazil’s soybean crop and other agricultural goods, with Brazil importing cheap Chinese manufactured goods in return, including some nonwovens.