São Paulo – Four Arab companies are exhibiting at Vitória Stone Fair, the ornamental rocks fair due from February 3rd to 6th in Brazil’s Espírito Santo state. The event will feature 120 international exhibitors.
From Egypt, El Badr Marble Company and Global Stones Ltd will attend. According to the Badr Marble website, the company was founded in 1997 and extracts marble from six quarries. It sells slabs and plates to China and India and to countries in the Gulf, the Americas and Europe.
The Global Stones website informs that the company is the leading marble producer and exporter in Egypt. According to the site, Global Stones has roughly US$ 4 million worth of export-ready marble in store.
Sharif Marble, from Oman, was founded in 1984 and extracts marble from its own quarries, according to the company’s website. Its production capacity exceeds 1.5 million cubic metres of marble plates. The other Omani enterprise to attend the event is Al-Nasr Trading Contracting.
“The entire world of stone importers and distributors comes to this fair,” says Cecília Milanez, the director of Vitória Stone Fair’s organizing company Milanez e Milaneze, stressing that the event is highly regarded by international buyers and distributors alike.
According to Milanez, the fair ranks among the leading events for the industry, and is overshadowed only by expos in China and Italy. “Vitória ranks third. It is one of the foremost events in the world. It is the fair for international buyers [in Brazil],” she says.
According to her, besides showing their products, the Arabs also attend wishing to associate with Brazilian companies. “They come looking to partner up, since the Brazilians [exhibitors] also buy from international ones,” she explains.
In order to attract foreign exhibitors, Milanez says the event is promoted internationally. She remarks that the Arab Brazilian Chamber of Commerce has helped promote the event in the Middle East and North Africa. “The Arab Chamber has been assisting us,” she says. This year, the organization has also entered into a partnership with the organizers to promote the fair among Arab companies.
Vitória Stone Fair is visited by people from the world over. The 2014 edition had 25,248 visitors, 2,048 of which were from outside Brazil. The event received visitors from 60 different countries, including Egypt, Algeria, Saudi Arabia, Morocco, United Arab Emirates, Jordan and Tunisia.
According to data supplied by the Brazilian Ministry of Development, Industry and Foreign Trade and compiled by the Arab Chamber, in 2014 Brazil exported US$ 8.1 million worth of ornamental stones to Arab countries. The leading importing countries in the region were the UAE, Libya, Jordan and Saudi Arabia.
Service
Vitória Stone Fair
February 03 to 06
Parque de Exposições Floriano Varejão
Rodovia do Contorno – BR 101 Norte – Carapina – Serra – Espírito Santo – Brazil
Website: www.vitoriastonefair.com.br
Telephone: +55 (27) 3434-0600
Email: info@vitoriastonefair.com.br
*Translated by Gabriel Pomerancblum
