Alexandre Rocha*
São Paulo – Brazilian agribusiness exports to the Arab countries totalled US$ 524.5 million in August, presenting growth of 21.2% when compared to the same month last year. In the accumulated result for the year, shipments generated US$ 2.622 billion, 16.6% more than in the first eight months of 2005.
Various Arab countries have risen in the ranking of main Brazilian agribusiness importers, among them Egypt, which rose from the 18th position to the 16th, the United Arab Emirates, which climbed from the 20th to the 19th, and Algeria, which went from the 27th to the 26th position, Yemen, which jumped from the 37th to the 32nd position, and Lebanon, which leaped to the 46th position, having previously been the 66th.
"Brazil is establishing itself more and more as one of the main warehouses of the world and this, together with the closer ties with the Arab countries, has been reflected in agribusiness export figures to the region," explained the president at the Arab Brazilian Chamber of Commerce, Antonio Sarkis Jr.
The figures supplied by the Ministry of Agriculture show that sales to the Middle East and North Africa continue growing more than the national average. In the month, total sector exports grew 18% and reached US$ 5.1 billion and, in the accumulated result for the year, the increase was 10.9% and generated US$ 31.774 billion.
The main agribusiness products exported to the Arab countries in the first eight months of the year were sugar, cattle beef, chicken, products in the soy complex (chaff, grain and oil) and coffee. Among these products, sales of sugar, cattle beef and soy in grain presented significant growth. There was a reduction in exports of coffee and chicken. In August, however, the shipments of chicken to the region grew, as did those of green coffee.
Other products
Sarkis believes, however, that there is space to expand sales of other products, as is the case with fruit, natural juices and cotton. "The Arabs are great importers of agribusiness products," he recalled.
In the case of cotton, for example, he said that the Arab Brazilian Chamber is trying to make possible, together with the government of countries in the region, visits by technicians in the agricultural area to learn about the national production and make possible the opening of markets. Egypt, for example, is a great producer and exporter of long and extra long staple cotton, turned to the production of high quality items, but the country imports the short staple variety to produce simpler products, like T-shirts.
Other products that have started presenting new opportunities in the Arab market are chicken, despite the global reduction in consumption of the product due to avian flu. Although the Middle East is among the main destinations for Brazilian chicken, Egypt, the most populous country in the region, previously imported very little. The Egyptian government, however, liberated imports of the birds and eliminated import tariffs as chicken farming has been prohibited in the country due to the disease. In September, great quantities of Brazilian chicken started entering the country.
From January to August, the main destinations for Brazilian agricultural products in the Arab world were Saudi Arabia (US$ 536.5 million), Egypt (US$ 524.2 million), the United Arab Emirates (US$ 407.7 million), Algeria (US$ 237.6 million) and Morocco (US$ 200.7 million). The countries that grew most as destinations were Djibouti (US$ 5.3 million, expansion of 248%), Iraq (US$ 48.3 million, 212% more), Sudan (US$ 18.5 million, growth of 112%), Somalia (US$ 45.9 million, an increase of 95%) and Lebanon (US$ 104 million, plus 61.7%).
*Translated by Mark Ament
