The baby clothes producers from the Local Productive Arrangement (LPA) of Terra Roxa, city in the southern Brazilian state of Paraná, are working to win the foreign market.
Formed two years ago, the LPA of Baby Fashion is the first and only one in Brazil. In spite of being new to the market, the clothes for newborns have already been shipped to France, Spain, England, Colombia, Portugal and Paraguay.
"Exports are still small. We are prospecting markets," said the technical consultant at Sebrae and advisor at the APL, Jaime Tezza.
Last year, a group of companies from the LPA visited Fimi, fair in the children’s and youngsters’ sector in Valencia, in Spain. According to Tezza, the idea is to participate in new international fairs and invest in marketing and promotion.
According to information from the Sebrae News Agency, the LPA is formed by 43 companies in Terra Roxa, city with one of the lowest unemployment rates in Paraná.
Together they produce 300,000 pieces per month and have revenues of US$ 1.37 million monthly. The segment of baby clothes is responsible for 30% of the city’s economy and generates 2,500 direct jobs.
Baby Fashion
Forming the LPA was a joint work of several entities, amongst them the Brazilian Micro and Small Business Support Service (Sebrae), Bank of Brazil, the federal bank Caixa Econômica Federal, the city hall and 25 entrepreneurs.
In spite of the LPA being only two years old, the production of baby fashion in the city started nearly 20 years ago. It all started with a mother that made the baby clothes for her first two children, which attracted looks by the other women. The orders started coming up and so the seamstresses started specializing in clothes for zero to one-year-old babies.
Located on the western border of Paraná, 600 kilometers away from the state’s capital city, Curitiba, and about 100 kilometers away from the border with Paraguay and the Brazilian midwestern state of Mato Grosso do Sul, Terra Roxa has 18,000 inhabitants. The city’s main economic activity used to be coffee.
Anba