São Paulo – Mate Laranjeiras, from Paraná, plans to grow abroad after selling to the Middle East. And that includes the opening of a representative office in the Arab market, a proposal to be taken by the company to the next meetings of the Brazilian Association of Mate Herb Exporters (Abimate), to take place on Wednesday and Thursday (10).
With two production units, one in Laranjeiras do Sul and another in Cascavel, in the interior of the state of Paraná, Mate Laranjeiras has 70 different products in the tea lines, mate herb and low-calorie soft drinks made from mate, sold under the Xima brand.
Among the company’s targets for the Arab world, Mate Laranjeiras also plans to set up a base in Ras Al-Khaimah, in the United Arab Emirates, after establishing partnerships with other companies.
“We do not yet have funds to open our own unit in the region, but we can establish a joint venture with some company that already has experience in the field,” explained Heroldo Secco Júnior, the export manager at the company. “We know that in Ras Al-Khaimah, conditions for investment are very attractive. All you have to do is find the ideal partner for the business, someone who already has experience in the production and storage of teas,” he said.
In this respect, the plans of signing agreements with other companies would be simplified by the establishment of a representative office, to be set up with the support of Abimate. “The Arabs are still unknown to us, and we have much to grow in the region,” said Secco. “In the same way our products are unknown to them too,” he said
The initiative of investing in the Arab world gained strength after company participation, in February, in the Gulfood, a fair in the food sector that takes place in Dubai. In October last year, Mate Laranjeiras took its first steps on the foreign market after participating in Anuga, a fair in the food sector in Cologne, Germany. “At the occasion, we closed a deal with a company from Germany and with another from Poland,” said Secco.
Within the country, the company, established in 1976, plans to strengthen sales of the Xima line of low-calorie mate soft drinks. “In the summer of 2011, we are going to invest mainly in Rio Grande do Sul, Santa Catarina, São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro,” explained Secco, eyeing the high temperatures in Brazil with one eye and the heat of the Middle East with the other.
*Translated by Mark Ament
