Alexandre Rocha*
São Paulo – Arab importers are coming to see the São Paulo Fashion Week, main fashion event in Brazil, which starts tomorrow (12) and follows on to the 18th in the city of São Paulo, capital of state by the same name, in Southeast Brazil. They are part of a buying project organised by the Brazilian Export and Investment Promotion Agency (Apex) and the Brazilian Association of Stylists (Abest).
According to Apex, part of the committee are about 20 foreign buyers, five of them from Dubai, Lebanon and Saudi Arabia. The travelling expenses are covered by the two entities, as part of a trade promotion agreement that exists since 2003 and has the aim of expanding sales in the shoes, accessories, beachwear, jeans and prêt-a-porter segments.
According to the projects manager at Apex, Nelma Vieira, the importers have a schedule that includes watching the fashion shows and visiting the showrooms of the companies participating in the project, factories and stores. "Each day they will have a different agenda, but focused on the event," she said. "They come to do business," she added. It is the companies involved in the agreement themselves that indicated the invited buyers.
Apex and Abest will take the opportunity to renew the agreement for another 12 months. According to Nelma, there will be investments of US$ 5.5 million in different actions. As well as the buying project, the 31 companies involved will participate in events in Paris, Miami, New York and Japan.
With the actions, the expectations the two entities have is to expand exports of these companies from US$ 9.5 million in 2005, to US$ 11.4 million in 2006 and US$ 13.7 million in 2007. They also hope that the number of companies associated increases to 40 before the end of the year. In the beginning, when the agreement was signed in 2003, there were only six companies participating.
Apex, together with the Arab Brazilian Chamber of Commerce and the Brazilian Franchising Association (ABF), also has a project to encourage opening franchises of Brazilian fashion brands in the Arab countries.
*Translated by Silvia Lindsey
