São Paulo – The Arab Brazilian Chamber of Commerce and the Brazilian Animal Protein Association (ABPA, in the Portuguese acronym) held a seminar this week on certification of origin and of export documents to Middle East and North Africa countries. The event was attended by executives from 25 poultry exporting companies and by Chamber and ABPA board members and employees.
“Certification is a guarantee that the product at hand is made in Brazil, that the exporting company is reliable and that the [exportation] documents are legitimate,” said to ANBA the Arab chamber CEO Michel Alaby, who discussed the subject at the ABPA headquarters in São Paulo. “We have touched on 38 different items,” he said.
Certification can be a customs requirement from either the importing country, the importer himself or both. The Arab Chamber is the sole organization authorized to provide this service in Brazil by the Arab League and its private arm, the General Union of Arab Chambers of Commerce, Industry and Agriculture. The work is carried out as per the League’s instructions.
The goal of the seminar, according to Alaby, was to explain why certify and how the process works. “It translates into safety for importer and exporter alike,” the executive said. “Many companies were unaware of this in the past,” he added. The price for the service is set by the Arab League.
Besides certification, there is a service called document legalization, which is not performed by the Chamber, but by embassies and consulates. In this case, prices are set by the government of the country at hand and the deadline is set by the diplomatic representation. Alaby advised, however, that companies must pay close attention to which papers actually require legalization, since unnecessary material is often legalized, driving up costs.
“Many documents do not require legalization,” the CEO said. Legalizing only the right documents can cut down process costs by over 40%.
Alaby also discussed the online certification process the Chamber is planning to implement. “We are working to implement online certification and legalization with digital signature, in a bid to cut the time span between the beginning and the end of the operation,” he said. The expectation is to cut the time required in half.
The Chamber also plans on hosting further events of this type, for beef industry delegates, for instance.
Additional information
Arab Brazilian Chamber of Commerce
Tel.: (+55 11) 3283-4066
Email: members@ccab.org.br
Website: http://www.ccab.org.br/arabe-brasil/br/home/servicos/certificacao.fss
*Translated by Gabriel Pomerancblum
