São Paulo – A delegation headed by the Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Supply (MAPA) will visit the United Arab Emirates on February 15 as part of a mission seeking out new markets in Asia and Middle East countries. The group is led by MAPA’s executive secretary, Eumar Roberto Novacki, and, in addition to other government representatives, includes business owners and leaders of sector associations.
As relayed to ANBA by MAPA’s director of the Department of Agribusiness International Promotion, Evaldo da Silva Júnior, the trip to the United Arab Emirates is part of a policy that has been focusing on the region and is the result of activities that occurred in 2017.
Last year, the minister of Agriculture, Blairo Maggi, took a mission to four Arab countries: Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, UAE and Qatar. And a delegation headed by the Food Security Center, from the UAE, came to Brazil and organized meetings with local business owners in position to receive foreign investments, visited producing regions and held meeting with political authorities and agribusiness associations.
During the visit to the UAE, the Brazilian delegation will have a networking event with local business owners and a meeting with the general director of the Food Security Center, Khalifa Al Ali. The center is based in Dubai, oversees food security and certifies the quality of the food sold in the United Arab Emirates. Also scheduled, according to MAPA, is a meeting between Novacki and Brazil’s ambassador in the UAE, Fernando Luís Lemos Igreja.
According to Evaldo, another topic to be discussed in the UAE is halal certification, which is the issuance of documents assuring that the product was made under the Islamic tradition. The two Brazilian halal certification authorities, the Islamic Dissemination Centre for Latin America (Cdial-Halal) and the Federation of Muslim Associations in Brazil (Fambras Halal), are represented in the mission.
The visit to the United Arab Emirates will last only one day and the country will be the mission’s last destination before returning to Brazil on February 16. It will arrive in the UAE on the evening of February 14. The group will also visit South Korea, Singapore, Indonesia and Malaysia. South Korea will be the first destination, with meetings already scheduled for this Wednesday (7).
Also included in the delegation are representatives of MAPA, of the Brazilian Trade and Investment Promotion Agency (Apex-Brasil), and of the state government of Rio Grande do Sul. In addition to the Brazilian halal certification authorities, also traveling with the group are companies and sector associations, such as the Brazilian Beef Exporters Association (Abiec), the Centre for the Brazilian Tanning Industry (CICB), JBS and BRF.
Brazil gained USD 2.5 billion with exports to the United Arab Emirates last year, with the trade basically made up of agribusiness products. The most sold food to the Arab country in 2017 was sugar, followed by meats. The two items accounted for over half of sales, with USD 1.4 billion. On the other hand, the UAE sold USD 186 million to the Brazilian market, mainly fertilizers.
*Translated by Sérgio Kakitani
