São Paulo – The Brazilian dairy industry will showcase its products at two events in Dubai, United Arab Emirates next month. The promotional actions will be undertaken by the B dairy project. Established in 2012 in a bid to sell industry products internationally, B dairy is carried out by the Organization of Brazilian Cooperatives (OCB) in partnership with the Brazilian Export and Investment Promotion Agency (Apex-Brasil).
“We will hire a local chef and host an event for journalists to sample products, so they can get to know Brazilian dairy,” explains Bernhard Smid, the promotion and prospecting manager for B dairy. “At the event, we will also address the issue of sustainability in production,” he said.
Smid said the event will take place on February 3rd and will be attended by approximately 40 journalists from the UAE and other countries in the region. Products from the portfolios of 12 Brazilian enterprises affiliated with B dairy will be tasted.
Besides the event for the press, Smid will also represent the project’s companies at Gulfood, the Middle East’s leading food industry fair, due from February 8th to 12th. Two of the project’s companies, Mococa and CCGL, will have booths at the exhibition.
Regarding the products the companies are taking to Dubai, Smid highlights powdered milk – the top-selling item to Arab countries, – requeijão (a creamy cheese-based product often used as a spread) and condensed milk. “Requeijão is a new thing for them, since they don’t typically import it,” he explained.
The B dairy project companies are going to the Gulfood for the third time in 2015. Smid says the exhibition “remains important” to Brazilian companies, since it’s “a place at which to showcase products, and to follow up with networking.”
Smid remarks that Brazilian dairy industry exports are on the way up for the last few years. According to the Brazilian Ministry of Development, Industry and Foreign Trade figures compiled by OCB, in 2012, US$ 73.8 million worth of dairy was shipped from Brazil. The amount increased to US$ 77.49 million in 2013 and then soared to US$ 314.4 million in 2014.
The executive notes that Saudi Arabia, Algeria and Egypt are priority targets when it comes to dairy promotion. He says industry delegates are planning a trip to Saudi Arabia to present the projects of Brazilian companies.
In order to highlight the importance of the Saudi market for the industry, he said that in 2011, condensed milk exports from Brazil to Saudi Arabia grossed US$ 1.1 million, but by 2014 revenues were as high as US$ 11.9 million. The Saudis are the leading Middle Eastern buyers of Brazilian condensed milk. In 2014, Bahrain was the main local importer of Brazilian butter, while Yemen, a traditional importer of the Brazilian product, kept buying more and more, and ranked second among Arab buyers of butter from Brazil last year, at approximately US$ 840,000.
For additional information on dairy exports from Brazil please go to www.bdairy.com.br.
*Translated by Gabriel Pomerancblum
