São Paulo – The hospital and medical sector is booming in the Arab countries and the Brazilian products can take advantage of this increasing demand. The Brazilian companies in this sector are investing on product certification and a stronger presence in the region. Besides, they have an edge over competitors.
According to the business promotion coordinator of the Brazilian Association of the Industry of Medical, Dentist, Hospital and Laboratories Equipment (Abimo), Clara Porto, there is a growing demand for medical and dental products in the Arab countries due to the expansion of the health sector in the region and inauguration of new hospitals. “These are countries with high purchase power and that started to invest in the health sector in the last few years”, Porto said to ANBA in an e-mail.
The promotion of Brazilian products abroad is done through the project Brazilian Health Devices, managed through a partnership between Abimo and the Brazilian Trade and Investment Promotion Agency (Apex-Brasil).
Between January 26th and 29th, more than 40 companies attended, in Dubai, the Arab Health fair. In this year’s edition, almost US$ 1 million in business were settled and the expectations are for sales of US$ 21 million as a result of the Brazilian attendance in the fair. Last year, after their attendance in the fair, the companies expected the deals to reach US$ 18 million. Porto said that this year’s event received a lot of clients from Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia and Egypt, countries viewed as “good clients” of the Brazilian industries.
Besides the deals expected due to the participation in the Arab Health, the Brazilian companies are investing in the region. They are seeking CE and FDA certificates. The former follows guidelines and standards set by the European Union, and the latter follows the US settings. Several countries adopt these certificates as requirement to import medical products.
The Brazilian companies have an edge over the competition. “The Brazilian products are high quality and established themselves as a great cost-benefit option. It’s not an expansive product as the American, European or Japanese ones, but it presents higher quality and reliability than the ones from Asia. Besides, there is empathy towards the Brazilian products due to the cultural rapprochement between Brazil and these countries”, remarks.
Other ongoing actions are a support project for new exporters, which plans for non-internationalized companies to start to sell their products to the Middle East within one to three years. Abimo employs a professional in Turkey, which is not an Arab country, to focus on the exploration of the Middle East market and also work in partnership with the Apex-Brasil’s Business Centre in Dubai to give support to companies that are planning a trade office in the region. According to data provided by Abimo, 15% of Brazilian exports have the Middle East as destination, a number with a chance to go up.
*Translated by Sérgio Kakitani
