São Paulo – Food sector fair Gulfood, to take place from February 23rd to 26th, in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, is the great bet for biscuit sector company Itamaraty, and Docile, of sweets and chewing gum, to increase exports to the Arab market. "We are going aiming at increasing contacts, expanding sales and seeking new distributors in the region," stated the export manager at Itamaraty, Laura de Fátima Seixas.
Last year, the company participated in a food sector fair in Dubai, Sweets Middle East, which generated good contacts. "We are very interested in the Middle East. The market is now one of our focuses," said Laura. According to her, Itamaraty already has a distributor in Libya, which imports two containers of products a month. "The Brazilian product is very well accepted in the Arab market," she added.
According to the manager, the company, which exports to 40 countries, including the Emirates, is investing in adapting the packages to Arabic. "We are starting with the line of wafers, which is one of the most exported products," said Laura. In the past, the company even shipped products to Tunisia, but the company did not manage to find a distributor with great potential.
Apart from the line of wafers, which currently represents 90% of company exports, Itamaraty sells the stuffed, dry and savoury biscuit lines very well. Of total production, around 10% is turned to the foreign market, being Africa, South and North Americas and the Middle East the main destinations. "The target [for this year] is to continue growing, no matter the crisis," said Laura. "We hope to have good return at this fair. Once we have the return, we can continue with the business," she added.
Docile, in turn, started investing in the Arab market two years ago. According to the foreign trade coordinator at the company, Cleber Joner Harth, in this period, exports to the Arab market have been growing much. The Docile sweets have won Morocco, Algeria, Libya, Egypt, Syria, Iraq, Jordan, Saudi Arabia and Yemen.
"We are greatly interested in improving relations with this market," said Harth. Most of the Docile Arab clients are importers, who sell to distributors and supermarkets. According to the coordinator, the ease of having won this market is due to two factors: company packages are written in five languages, including Arabic, and the products are not of animal origin, which simplifies the issuing of certificates.
The products most shipped to the Arabs are gum sweets, pastilles and chewing gum. "The products are not modified for the region. The only demand is that the ingredients be specified on the package," said Harth.
With monthly production of 1.2 million tonnes, Docile exports 20% of production to over 40 countries, with the Arab market representing between 30% and 40% of foreign sales. "Nowadays Latin America, the Middle East and Russia are our main markets," said the coordinator, who estimates an increase of 26% in general company exports this year.
Apart from these two companies, the Arab Brazilian Chamber of Commerce and Ministry of Agriculture stand at Gulfood should include another 10 companies. Before the fair, on the 21st and 22nd, the companies are going to participate in event Flavours of Brazil, organized by the Brazilian Export and Investment Promotion Agency (Apex-Brasil), which should receive potential importers from the Middle East for business meetings.
Contacts
Itamaraty
Site: www.itamaraty.com
Docile
Site: www.docile.com.br
*Translated by Mark Ament
