São Paulo – Africa is included in the objectives of the next phase of the Brazil Machinery Solutions (BMS) programme, which promotes the Brazilian machinery sector abroad. Developed in partnership with the Brazilian Machinery Manufacturers Association (Abimaq) and the Brazilian Export and Investment Promotion Agency (Apex), the programme promotes Brazilian producers and exporters in South America, Europe, North America and Asia. In Africa, the project includes Angola and South Africa, and there are already other nations on the BMS “radar”.
According to the manager of the BMS programme, and also the Foreign Trade director at Abimaq, Klaus Curt Müller, between four and five African countries should receive Brazilian producers in the next phase of the programme, which starts in January 2013 and ends in December 2014. "We are also selecting the countries to be contemplated by the BMS projects, which will probably include actions for the agricultural sector,” he said.
After the African countries are selected, exporters will receive BMS support to promote their products on the continent. Apart from Angola and South Africa, program focuses are Argentina, Peru, Chile, Colombia, Venezuela, Mexico, the United States, India and Russia.
The programme’s main objective is to present Brazil as a producer of machinery in several sectors. For this, the BMS promotes cocktails prior to large fairs, as well as meetings with exporters and potential clients, and brings together Brazilian exhibitors at fairs in a stand in a privileged location, as well as also having started operating in post-sales. “We have seen that large Brazilian competitors do not do that. We see a great opportunity in post-sales,” said Müller.
The project manager also stated that it is early to determine how much exports have risen to the countries selected since the start of the project, in August 2010, but adds that the activities of the programme have already resulted in greater sales and inquiries. The programme budget between August 2010 and August 2012 is R$ 8 million (US$ 4.3 million). There will be an additional R$ 4 million (US$ 2.2 million) for the period from September to December 2012. In October, there will be a great operation of the plastic industry machinery sector at two fairs to take place in Colombia.
Apart from Colombia and Argentina, Peru and Chile are the countries in which the BMS believes there are currently the best options for sector producers. "South America imports between US$ 12 billion (US$ 6.5 billion) and US$ 14 billion (US$ 7.6 billion) a year in machinery from outside South America. There is no reason not to win this market,” said Müller.
*Translated by Mark Ament
