São Paulo – The Arab Brazilian Chamber of Commerce will open a new branch office in Itajaí, Santa Catarina, on May 24. The plan is to cut fixed costs for and offer faster services to the members of the region that sell their products to the Arabs via the Port of Itajaí. The opening will be attended by authorities and entrepreneurs from the region. Rubens Hannun, the Arab Chamber’s president, said that, on the opening day, the organization will engage the guests on talks on how to exports to Arabs and will present the services it offers.
The Arab Chamber’s Special Projects advisor, Tamer Mansour, said that, in addition to Certification, proceedings regarding documents and other services, the new office will have a sales sector to prospect the market for new members. “We found out that most of the volume exported to the Arabs is shipped from Itajaí and other ports in the region, mainly from the meat industry, thus we plan to get closer to these members and we intend to expand the sales area over there,” he said.
Hannun told that the new office is part of a strategy by the Arab Chamber to get closer to its members, exporters and potential exporters, and that Itajaí is a key hub. “Our plan is to offer faster services and services more focused on the members’ needs, and this [office in Itajaí] is a pilot project; the plan is for this to spread to other places,” he remarked.
The office is located at Edifício Embraed Centro Empresarial, at avenue Coronel Marcos Konder, 1207, Downtown, near the port. For further information, the Arab Chamber’s phone number in São Paulo is 55 11 3145-3200.
Trade
Large meat packing companies such as BRF and JBS Aves ship their products from the Santa Catarina port, which accounts for a significant share of the meats exported to the Arab world, especially poultry. Focusing specifically on the meat industry, the country exported USD 3.68 billion worth of meat to the Arab countries in 2017 and Itajaí accounted for 28% of the shipments, totaling USD 1.03 billion, which represented 89% of Itajaí’s exports to the Arab world in the year.
Overall, Brazil exported USD 13.59 billion worth of products to the Arab League in 2017, and 8.54% of this total was shipped from the Itajaí port, totaling USD 1.17 billion.
Translated by Sérgio Kakitani
