If the Brazilian cotton producer orders a new cotton harvester now to cope with the expected plentiful harvest, he will not receive it this year. Industry has exhausted its capacity.

“We are still supplying combines ordered last year. Some will get to the farms in the middle of the harvesting season and only help complete the field work, ”said Rodrigo Bonato, Brazilian director of sales for equipment manufacturer John Deere, at Agrishow, Latin America’s largest agricultural equipment fair, in an interview with Reuters.

John Deere is the only supplier of the type of cotton harvester that Brazilian farmers use in vast territories in the states of Mato Grosso or Bahia. The company imports cars from its Des Moines plant in Iowa. Other manufacturers, such as Case IH, produce machines that do not meet local needs.

Brazil is currently experiencing a boom in cotton production as a result of rising world prices and a 25 percent additional Chinese tax on cotton imports to the United States during the war.

The Anea Cotton Exporters Association predicts that Brazilian cotton exports will increase 35 percent this year to 1.7 million tons of fiber. At the current harvest, it is expected that 2.64 million tons of cotton will be harvested compared to last year's 2 million tons.