São Paulo – Brazil has expanded aniseed imports from the Arab world by 90%. Between January and September this year, the country imported US$ 1.6 million worth of the product, against US$ 888,000 in the same period last year. The figures were supplied by the Foreign Trade Secretariat (Secex), under the Ministry of Development, Industry and Foreign Trade.
The main Brazilian supplier of anise in the period was Syria. The country exported to the Brazilian market a total of US$ 1.5 million in the first nine months of the year. In the same period last year, the Syrians sold to Brazil the equivalent to US$ 888,000 in anise. At the time, they were the only Arab suppliers of the product. This year, however, the Egyptians also exported US$ 165,000 in aniseed to Brazilian customers.
The Brazilian state that purchased most anise was São Paulo, US$ 1.2 million. Other importers of the product were Paraná, Rio de Janeiro, the Federal District (where Brazilian capital Brasília is located) and Minas Gerais. The two latter had not imported the product in the first nine months of last year. São Paulo was responsible for the greatest share in the expansion, as the state boosted its purchases by US$ 873,000.
In terms of volume, the expansion in purchases of anise from the Arab world was not so high. They rose from 310 tonnes from January to September 2008 to 468.6 tonnes in the same period this year. The growth was 50%. Of this total, 162,800 tonnes were purchased in September. In terms of revenues, of the total US$ 1.6 million, US$ 592,600 represented purchases over the last month.
*Translated by Mark Ament
