The Brazilian Textile and ApparelIndustry Association (ABIT) is thebody of the en'tire Brazilian textileindustry. Founded in the early 1960's,ABIT represents the integration of theBrazilian textile chain that comprisessome 30,000 textile companies. Thetextile and garment industry is the2nd biggest industry sector in Brazilwith17% of the working peopleinvolved, which means approx. 8million people are working in theindustry. Brazil is among the topten markets in the textile industryworldwide and in the top five as anapparel producer. In 2009, the totalturnover of the sector was USD 47billion and exports were over USD 1.8billion.