Northeastern textile hub reinvents itself.
The Agreste de Pernambuco Clothing Hub is creating a label to be launched at the country's largest fashion event, aiming to recover credibility damaged by the scandal involving the importation of hospital supplies from the United States.
Pedro Ivo Bernardes_247 - The clothing manufacturing hub of Agreste de Pernambuco wants to leave behind the last fifteen days, a period in which it was involved in the scandal of importing hospital waste from the United States. Producers and merchants are now trying to recover from the impact and move forward. The Fashion Hub, however, already has a date set to return to the media. But this time in a positive way, as a highlight of São Paulo Fashion Week, the largest fashion event in the country.
The exhibition, which will take place early next year, will showcase companies from the region to the country, reinforcing the brand of the garment manufacturing hub and helping to identify companies that operate legally. The initiative was a long-standing project, but it gained momentum after allegations of irregularities involving textile companies.
Today, looking ahead is the watchword in the hub. “What happened needs to be investigated and those responsible punished. But the hub is much more than that. We need to look to the future and create mechanisms to prevent this from happening again,” says Bruno Bezerra, president of the Chamber of Retail Leaders (CDL) of Santa Cruz do Capibaribe, located about 190 kilometers from Recife, and which, along with Toritama and Caruaru, forms the backbone of the Pernambuco clothing sector.
Bezerra is part of the task force responsible for restoring the credibility of companies in the region. The first measure adopted was the creation of a sector monitoring system to track the impacts of the scandal. "We monitor everything, orders to companies, excursions, hotel reservations. We can say that the activity in Santa Cruz is back to normal," he states.
One of the main indicators of good business activity is the number of buses bringing buyers to the municipality. “At the first fair after the complaints, we received 107 buses. When we receive more than 100 buses, we consider the activity good,” he explains. Only in the months of March and April, considered the “off-season” for the sector, does the average number of buses arriving in Santa Cruz fall below 100, fluctuating between 80 and 90 per fair day.
The hub is also investing in studies and seminars to professionalize the sector. "We have a seminar underway, which began before the crisis, that will tour the main cities of the hub, discussing the infrastructure we have and what we need to grow. We will also discuss how we will integrate ourselves into the digital world, on the internet," reveals the businessman.
In total, 18 municipalities in Pernambuco are part of the clothing production cluster, but its area of influence extends beyond the state borders, encompassing some cities in Paraíba. The economic activity in that microregion of the Agreste region generates approximately R$ 3,3 billion annually and employs around 150 people.