"Made in China" Brazilian Carnival

The Brazilian Carnival became the world of Chinese goods

The Brazilian Carnival is known as the largest carnival in the world. According to reports, about 80% of the costumes used in the Brazilian Carnival in March this year were imported from China. Whether it is the traditional clothing of samba dance or the exotic props like the Elvis Costume, Chinese polyester and nylon are used.

Claudia Sakuriya runs a samba dance shop in the northern district of São Paulo. Thousands of fabrics in her store are imported from China at a price of about 40% less than Brazil.

In recent years, due to the rapid appreciation of Brazilian currency, Chinese goods have poured into this Latin American country. This is one of the biggest political problems for Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff since he took office. The chairman of the Brazilian Textile Importers Association, Jonathan Schmidt, told the Financial Times: “The situation was completely different 15 years ago. At that time, these things were all produced in Brazil.”

Siu Ting recalled that when she founded the company in 2005, the Brazilian real was about 2.5 to 1 compared to the U.S. dollar, and only about 30% of her fabric was imported. Now that one dollar can be exchanged for 1.6 reais, the percentage of imports is 60%. She said that this is not just a question of the exchange rate. The Brazilian textile industry lacks new equipment and investment and cannot meet the current strong market demand.

Economists believe that Brazil's measures to curb the appreciation of the Real are basically futile. The only practical solution is to strengthen skills training, purchase better-quality machines and develop infrastructure. This is true not only for the textile industry but for all other industries. Although Brazil’s national oil company has vigorously expanded its polyester production in the northeastern factories, the Brazilian carnival is unlikely to return to “made in Brazil” at one time.