São Paulo – Cooperativa Agropecuária Centro Serrana (Nater Coop), an agribusiness cooperative based in the city of Santa Maria de Jetibá, state of Espírito Santo, started exporting black pepper and its first destination was Egypt. By February, containers are expected to be shipped to the United Arab Emirates, and there are prospects for sales to Morocco as well. (Picture above is merely illustrative).
Nater Coop’s market manager Jozielton Freire told ANBA the cooperative exports green robusta and arabica coffee. Since mid-2022, they started offering black pepper to importers. “We saw the need for producers to export other products, and black pepper is an important product in the North and Northeast regions of Espírito Santo,” said Freire.
In October last year, they exported their first shipment of black pepper to Egypt. Fifty-four tonnes of dried, unprocessed black pepper were split between two 40-foot containers, each weighing 27 tonnes, in 25-kilo bags. In December, two more containers were shipped. “We are starting to export to this promising market,” stated Freire. The product left the municipality of Vila Valério, in Espírito Santo, bound for the port of Itaguaí, in Rio de Janeiro, and arrived through the Port of Damietta, in Egypt.
The black pepper exported is the Asta standard, considered the higher quality. Freire explained the quality of the spice is measured by the density of the pepper: The higher the density, the better the quality.
According to the manager, the next shipment will be bound for the UAE in January or February. There will be four containers of 27 tonnes each, totaling 108 tonnes. The importer in Egypt is the same as in the United Arab Emirates. Freire’s projection is the cooperative could export over 50 containers of the spice this year.
It is also prospecting for sales to Morocco and other countries in the region. “There is a lot of demand there; Morocco is among the three main importers in the region, along with Egypt and Pakistan,” he stated.
Brazil has a tradition of growing black pepper, said Freire. The largest producers in the world are Vietnam, Brazil, Indonesia, and India. “Initially, the state of Pará was the biggest producer, and now Espírito Santo, in its North and Northwest regions, is producing and exporting a lot. Over 120,000 tonnes are produced annually in Brazil, on average,” said the manager.
Espírito Santo has expanded its production in recent years and surpassed Pará, becoming the largest producer in the country, according to data from the Espírito Santo Institute for Research, Technical Assistance and Rural Extension (INCAPER). Black pepper production in Espírito Santo is predominantly a family farming activity. There are around 11,500 spice producers in the state.
Considering the last five years, Brazilian black pepper export revenue increased from USD 194.75 million in 2018 to USD 308.74 million in 2022, a considerable growth of 59%.
To the Arab world, exports of the product in 2022 totaled USD 89.39 million, representing an impressive 151% increase compared to 2018. The 22 Arab countries, as a whole, were the top destination for Brazilian black pepper exports in 2022. Data are from the Brazilian federal government’s Foreign Trade Secretariat (SECEX).
Brazil was the leading supplier of black pepper to the Arabs, mainly to the UAE, Egypt, and Morocco. The Arab bloc imported USD 208.61 million worth of the spice in 2021, according to the latest data on Arab imports from the world, from the International Trade Center (ITC).
Nater Coop, formerly known as Coopeavi, is located in the central highlands region of Espírito Santo and today has around 20,000 members, mainly from Espírito Santo and some from Minas Gerais and southern Bahia. They produce coffee, milk, dairy products, eggs, and black pepper. The cooperative has been operating for 58 years and is the largest in Espírito Santo in the agribusiness area.
The cooperative’s green coffee is sold domestically and to over 20 countries abroad, including some Arab countries such as the UAE, Libya, Jordan, Egypt, and Algeria. The cooperative also sells roasted coffee under the Pronova brand.
Contact
Jozielton Freire: +55 27 99869-0213
http://nater.coop.br/
Translated by Elúsio Brasileiro
