São Paulo – Brazil wants to export pharmaceutical and chemical products to Arab countries. Currently, sector sales to the region are inexpressive, but the national industry plans on changing this scenario, according to information from the Association of Brazilian Pharmochemicals and Pharmaceutical Ingredients Producers (Abiquifi).
The actions will take place under the project Brazilian Pharma Solutions, a partnership between Abiquifi and the Brazilian Export and Investment Promotion Agency (Apex), created to promote the Brazilian pharmaceutical and chemical sectors abroad. According to Natália Porto, international project manager at Abiquifi, up until recently the project concentrated on Latin America, but this is now going to change.
“The project is entering a new phase, where we are looking to diversify investments on international promotion of the pharmaceutical and chemical industries. So, together with the companies associated to the project, we identified Africa and the Middle East as important prospect regions for new opportunities for Brazilian pharmaceutical products,” explained Porto.
The project manager says that Brazilian Pharma Solutions plans on investing from R$ 200,000 (US$ 84,700 by current exchange rates) to R$ 300,000 (US$ 127,000) in commercial actions directed at the Arab market in 2014. Among the events planned are the Buyer Project, which is to take place in May, and will host in Brazil business roundtables with importers from Egypt, Morocco and Algeria, as well as non-Arab countries such as South Africa, Angola and Mozambique.
In August, the project will hold a second Buyer Project, in São Paulo, during the CPhl South America Pharma trade fair, with importers from the Middle East. The list of guest countries is not completely confirmed yet, but Saudi Arabia is among the participants.
As well as the national events, the project will also develop actions abroad. “Brazilian Pharma Solutions will participate at the 2014 CPhl Worldwide fair, which takes place from October 07 to 09 in Paris. This is the sector’s most important event on a global level, with visitors from 145 countries, and Brazilian Pharma Solutions is organizing a natioanl pavilion with 20 exhibiting firms, as well as Brazilian companies which visit the event. Representatives of the Brazilian government and sector associations also participate,” adds the Abiquifi manager.
*Translated by Silvia Lindsey
