Alexandre Rocha*
alexandre.rocha@anba.com.br
São Paulo – The Brazilian Beef Industry and Exporters Association (Abiec) is going to promote, starting in 2008, trade promotion activities in four Arab countries. According to the marketing manager at the organisation, Andréa Veríssimo, workshops in Saudi Arabia, Algeria and Tunisia have been scheduled, as has participation in the Gulfood, a food sector fair to take place in Dubai, in the United Arab Emirates, in February.
In Saudi Arabia and Tunisia the events are going to take place for the first time. The workshops are promotional barbecues in partnership with Brazilian embassies to show how Brazil prepares beef. Abiec organises the events in partnership with other trade associations, like the Brazilian Fruit Institute (Ibraf), also granting the guests the opportunity of savouring Brazilian juice.
"The Middle East is becoming a very interesting market, so we are turning our actions more and more in that direction," said Andréa. The Middle East is now the third main market for Brazilian beef abroad, losing only to Russia and the European Union.
In 2007, Abiec participated in Gulfood for the first time, with nine companies. In 2008 the fair should also count on the presence of the Arab Brazilian Chamber of Commerce. The organisation also promoted workshops in Dubai, Jordan and Morocco.
Of the Arab countries that are going to receive events promoted by the association in 2008, Algeria and Saudi Arabia are among the main importers of Brazilian raw beef, in the 9th and 10th positions, respectively. Saudi Arabia appears in the 15th position in imports of industrialized cattle beef and byproducts.
Tunisia, however, is a new market, opened last year after the signing of a sanitary agreement with Brazil. Between January and October this year, the Arab country imported the equivalent to US$ 3.4 million in cattle beef from Brazil, as against US$ 2 million in the same period in 2006, an increase of 73.2%.
*Translated by Mark Ament
