São Paulo – A creamy açaí sorbet with different flavors ready for export and halal-certified. This is the product Brazilian company QPrime Açaí offers under its own brand and also for private labels.
The plant is in the San José Industrial Park, in the city of Cotia, in the São Paulo metropolitan area. The halal certificate was obtained in April this year through the CDial Halal certifier, with the aim of internationalization.
This is the company’s first initiative to try to take its products to foreign markets after ten years of operation. QPrime also produces açaí as a subcontractor for Fuzzy, a subsidiary of Jundiá – Brazil’s third-largest ice cream company – and other companies (B2B).
“We want to export our brand, and we are focusing on Arab countries,” said Fábio Ferreira, export director of QPrime, at the reception of buyers and journalists who visited the plant this Tuesday (24).
The visit was arranged by the Halal do Brasil Project, a joint initiative between the Arab-Brazilian Chamber of Commerce (ABCC) and the Brazilian Trade and Investment Promotion Agency (ApexBrasil) to foster Brazilian exports of value-added foods to Muslim markets.
Ferreira explained the first part of processing takes place in Belém, in the Brazilian Amazonian state of Pará. The açaí arrives in São Paulo in frozen pulp. The director said the company is Brazil’s third largest in the açaí sorbet segment. The company also produces and packages products for other brands through private labels. At the plant, 25 to 30 employees work in production and stock management.
The company’s halal-certified products include sugar-free açaí sorbet and açaí sorbet with guaraná, banana, or strawberry. The flavors are sold in eight sizes, from 220-gram cartons to 10-kilogram boxes, said managing partner Waldir Ribeiro.
QPrime processes 12 tonnes a day and around 100 tonnes per month. “Our plan is to increase production to 140 tonnes a month and sell these additional 40 tonnes abroad,” said Ferreira.
In addition to ready-to-eat sorbet, QPrime also produces frozen açaí pulp for juices and sells it to food service customers. The products have a shelf life of 18 months.
Industrial manager Cassia Pereira and the religious auditor of CDial Halal, Aboo Abudo, also welcomed the group.
Read more on the Global Halal Brazil Business Forum here.
Translated by Elúsio Brasileiro
