São Paulo – This year’s edition of the supermarket fair APAS Show kicked off on Monday (15) in São Paulo. The opening ceremony featured authorities like São Paulo state governor Tarcísio de Freitas, São Paulo city mayor Ricardo Nunes, Legislative Assembly of São Paulo president André do Prado, São Paulo Supermarkets Association (APAS) chairman Pedro Lopes Brandão, and Brazilian Supermarkets Association (ABRAS) chairman João Galassi.
On the occasion, the organization pointed out the expectation that some BRL 14 billion (USD 3 billion) worth in deals will be generated. Debates that the show plans on bringing forward include trends like retail hyper-segmentation, fresh and raw foods, and the Brazilian market recovery.
The event is the Americas’ largest food and beverage trade show and the world’s largest supermarkets show. Besides the exhibition area, the APAS Show also features a Management Congress, whose theme this year is Supernova – Expand Your Future. “The metaphor refers to the current trend of retail hyper-segmentation,” said Carlos Correa, APAS director-general, speaking at the event.
The show’s financial operations are expected to follow the Brazilian market recovery. “The supermarket [industry] accounts for 7% of the state GDP. We’re an industry with great coverage, as every neighborhood in any city features at least one supermarket,” Lopes pointed out. The executive also highlighted the demands of the sector, including tax reduction on basic food products.
The governor, on the other hand, talked about the industry’s job creation. “The sector has changed a lot. The advent of new platforms, digitization, obviously the sector has rapidly adapted to that. There has been a change in the work profile, and we’ll have to be able to train people to meet this demand [in vocational education],” said Freitas.
The opening ceremony was attended by officials and executives of the Arab Brazilian Chamber of Commerce (ABCC), including president Osmar Chohfi, secretary-general & CEO Tamer Mansour, Institutional Relations director Fernanda Baltazar, director William Atui, and former president Rubens Hannun, who’s also the Tunisian honorary consul. The ABCC has stands across three pavilions of the show, where firms from different Arab nations are exhibiting.
Arab diplomats also attended the kickoff of the APAS Show, including Iraq chargé d’affairs Firas Hassan Hashim Al-Hammadany, Jordan’s ambassador Maen Masadeh, Bahrain’s ambassador Bader Abbas Alhelaibi, Tunisia Embassy counselor Hassen Sadani, and Lebanon’s consul general to São Paulo, Rudy El Azzi. Tunisia Export director Mohamed Ikbal Khaldi attended, too, together with other representatives of Arab countries.
Read more on the Arab participation in APAS on ANBA.
Translated by Guilherme Miranda
