São Paulo – The goal of morning cereal manufacturer Alca Foods for 2009 is to increase from 1% to 5% the share of exports in its revenues. Presently, the Dominican Republic is the leading destination of foreign sales by the company, which already exports to five Arab countries – Saudi Arabia, Libya, the United Arab Emirates, Iraq and Kuwait – and wants to strengthen the brand in the region.
"We made contact with the Arab importers via the Internet and by mean of trading companies. We also took part in a trade mission to Algeria in 2005, organized by the federal government, which enabled the establishment of closer ties with the Arab importers," claims foreign trade supervisor Henrique Barros. "Most of the sales to the Arab countries are sporadic, but the region is regarded as a potential market and we plan to keep investing in it," he says.
The company’s export expansion strategy entails participating in sector fairs such as Alimentar, held last week in Portugal, and the Brazilian supermarket fair Apas 2009, to be held from May 18th to 21st in the city of São Paulo, which should be attended by exhibitors and importers from the Arab world.
Alca Foods is one of the largest Brazilian morning cereal manufacturing companies. It has a built area of 5,300 square metres for processing grain such as maize, soy and barley. According to Barros, the company is currently the leading manufacturer of own-brand morning cereal in Brazil, and supplies large supermarket chains such as Wal-Mart, Carrefour, Dia, BIG, Nacional and Mercadorama, among others.
The company started its activities in 1996, in the city of Itumbiara, in the far South of the state of Goiás. With an average monthly production of 400 tonnes, it generates 220 direct jobs.
In the domestic market, Alca Foods works with distributors and representatives, and caters mostly to the states of São Paulo, Minas Gerais, Rio Grande do Sul, Paraná and Santa Catarina. Recently, the company started selling in the state of Rio de Janeiro and in the northeastern region of the country.
“The mission of Alca Foods is to produce quality, trustworthy foodstuffs. That is why we only work with non-GM grain,” explains Barros.
Contact
E-mail: export@alcafoods.com
Telephone: (+55 64) 2103-4236
Site: www.alcafoods.com.br
*Translated by Gabriel Pomerancblum
