São Paulo – Brazilian makers of dairy products and derivatives are going to have heavyweight presence at Gulfood, a food sector fair in Dubai, next week. Powdered milk, yoghurt, condensed milk, cheese, butter and cream are among the products to be offered to the Arab market by five Brazilian companies. All already export to the region and are planning to increase sales.
"It was the best fair we have participated in abroad. We even managed to cover more difficult regions, like Khazakhstan, Pakistan and Uzbekistan," stated the commercial director at Alliance Commodities, Marcos Goulart, who is going to participate in the fair for the second time and is responsible for foreign trade of dairy producers Laticínios Bela Vista and Alibra Ingredientes.
According to Goulart, both companies together export to 43 countries, being the African nations the main market. "Now we are focussing on the Arab market (in the Middle East)," said the director, who is going to exhibit products with packages in Arabic at the fair.
Most of the Alibra Ingredientes sales are for the industrial food sector, but the company also produces powdered mixes like chocolate drinks and whole instantaneous milk powder for the retail market. Laticínios Bela Vista, in turn, which has production of 1.6 million litres of powdered milk a day, produces over 100 kinds of products, like powdered, condensed and long life milk, cream, milk drinks, cheese and butter.
Another company that produces in large scale in the dairy sector turned to food industries is Tangará, which is also going to participate in the Gulfood for the second time. "Last year we participated through a trading company, and we have now decided to consolidate exports with our own team," said the export manager at the company, Leonardo Bonaparte.
Tangará already exports to the countries of North Africa, the Middle East and believes that the Gulfood is a very important fair to increase and consolidate sales. "We are going to exhibit to promote Tangará, prospect new importers, increase volumes and maintain clients," added the manager.
According to him, the countries in North Africa are great consumers of powdered milk and dairy compounds. "Africa as a whole is the market that purchases our products the most. Of the volume we export to the private sector it is the most representative," said Bonaparte.
In the case of Serlac, a trading company in Itambé group, this should also be the organisations second participation in the fair and the aim is to expand the number of importers. Currently, the Arab countries already buy 10% of the 8,000 tonnes shipped monthly and the plan is to reach 18% in 2008. The company produces 11,000 tonnes of powdered milk every month, 4,000 tonnes of evaporated milk and 10,000 tonnes of condensed milk. The group, which has over 8,000 producers of milk, is the main exporter of daily consumption products in Brazil and the second largest in the domestic market.
Another company in the dairy sector is Tirolez, a maker of cheese, which has four factories in Minas Gerais and São Paulo and processing capacity of 360,000 litres of milk a day. The company already exports to Lebanon and Libya and this is the second time it is participating in the fair with the objective of expanding the network of clients in the Arab countries.
Last month, Brazilian dairy exports to the Arab nations totalled US$ 53.13 million, which represented a reduction of almost 40% over 2007. The main destinations were Algeria, Sudan, Tunisia, Mauritania and Saudi Arabia.
The Brazilian stand at Gulfood is organized by the Arab Brazilian Chamber of Commerce in partnership with the Ministry of Agriculture. The event should take place from the 23rd to the 26th.
*Translated by Mark Ament
