São Paulo – Sales of sugar continue to boost trade between Brazil and the Arab market. In the first ten months of the year, exports from Brazil to the African Arab countries, which are the ones that buy the Brazilian commodity the most in the region, grew 1.9% over the same period of 2008. Brazil obtained US$ 2.6 billion in revenues from exports to the Arab nations in North Africa from January to October this year.
"The demand for products whose sales are increasing, in exports from Brazil to the Arab countries, was stronger in that particular region,” explains the Marketing Development manager of the Arab Brazilian Chamber of Commerce, Rodrigo Solano, regarding the increase of Brazilian exports to North Africa. Sugar was the second product in the export basket from Brazil to the Arab world from January to October, with revenues of US$ 1.99 billion and growth of 46.99%.
Exports from Brazil to the Arab market as a whole decreased by 4.8% in the first ten months of the year, compared with the same period of 2008, and totalled US$ 7.6 billion. The figure was strongly influenced by the reduction in sales to Arab countries in the Gulf, which was equivalent to 9.56% during the period, with total exports of US$ 4.1 billion. The gulf is the Arab region that buys the most from Brazil, percentage-wise. The Levant region, in turn, increased its imports by 0.6%, with purchases totalling US$ 836.9 million.
The Gulf is comprised of Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Qatar, United Arab Emirates, Yemen, Kuwait and Oman, and the Arab countries located in the African continent are Algeria, the Comoro Islands, Egypt, Djibouti, Libya, Morocco, Mauritania, Somalia, Sudan and Tunisia. The Arab countries in the Levant region are Jordan, Lebanon, Syria and Iraq. In North Africa, Algeria is the country that imports the most Brazilian products.
Meats, aircraft etc…
Among the four leading products in the Brazilian export basket to the Arab world in the year-to-date result, sugar and aircraft sales have increased. Exports of aircraft and their parts totalled US$ 272.3 million, growth of 40%. Arab buyers of Brazilian aircraft included the Emirates, Egypt and Saudi Arabia. The other two main items sold had reduction in exports. Shipment of meats decreased 9.71% and totalled US$ 2.2 billion, and ores decreased by 40.34% and totalled US$ 767.66 million.
From January to October, meats were the main product shipped from Brazil to the Arab market, despite the reduction. “In a situation of crisis there is a retraction in demand, as proteins are replaced by cheaper varieties, or even withdrawn from meals altogether,” explains Solano. He claims that the concentration of Brazilian exports to the Arabs around a few products renders the country’s exports vulnerable to the fluctuations of these industries.
In October, revenues from exports to Arab countries in Brazil totalled US$ 811.6 million, reduction of 18% over the same month of 2008. Brazilian imports of Arab products saw even greater reduction, at 46%, and totalled US$ 498.46 million. In the year-to-date period ended October, imports total US$ 9.2 billion, representing a 52.9% reduction. Brazil basically imports oil and derivatives from the Arab world.
*Translated by Gabriel Pomerancblum
