São Paulo – SDA Grupe Touati, which operates in retail in Algeria, is in Brazil seeking food suppliers. The president at the company, Fareh Touati, visited the Arab Brazilian Chamber of Commerce on Friday (30) and next Wednesday (5) should participate in roundtables organized by the Arab Brazilian Chamber with Brazilian companies that export food. Around ten companies should participate in the meeting.
According to the representative at Touati who is negotiating with the Brazilians, Samir Boubaar, the company plans to exchange its current suppliers for Brazilian ones. Currently, the company imports from Africa and the Middle East, and also buys products from Algerian suppliers. One of them is Cevital group, one of the largest Algerian companies, which is also a competitor.
"We heard from a partner that Brazil has companies that may supply products to us and that the prices are more competitive. We want to develop a partnership with Brazilian companies," said Boubaar. He said that the forecast is for Touati Group to import between US$ 2 million and US$ 3 million in consumer goods every year.
The company priority is to find suppliers of sweets and biscuits, but at the meeting at the Arab Brazilian Chamber, they also stated that they are interested in buying cosmetics and building material. This demand, however, is not urgent.
The Grupe Touati headquarters are in Setif, some 300 kilometres away from Algiers, the Algerian capital. The company employs around 1,000 people.
*Translated by Mark Ament
