São Paulo – Brazilian brand Ducoffee has just started a new project in the United Arab Emirates: a private-label coffee called Amazing. Besides being sold in Dubai, the packages will be distributed in South Korea and Spain, too. “The brand is ready, and I’ve sent them the first lot. Everything, including the Arabic packages, are made here [in Brazil] and registered in the UAE,” Ducoffee founder Gilberto Antonio Jorge told ANBA.
The Brazilians are now taking the brand to the 2021 Gulfood, a food show to take place in Dubai. This year’s edition is scheduled for February 21-25. “We’ll participate together with the Brazilian pavilion of Gulfood, as the coffee beans are from Brazil,” explained Jorge. The booth will only feature the brand developed for the UAE.
The Brazilian company has exported to and had private labels in the Middle East since 2006. “Thus, we had to get established in Dubai, as these activities demand a logistics. Now, everyone in Africa and the Middle East are based in Dubai,” explains Jorge, who divides his time between Dubai and São Paulo but stayed in Brazil during the pandemic. In addition to the founder, the company features his sons, daughters-in-law and wife supporting him in different departments.
To break into the Arab market, Ducoffee participated in events to probe around. “Those fairs yielded customers. We sold them to a coffeeshop chain in Abu Dhabi and several middle- and small-sized markets in Dubai.” Depending on the volume, the company can even send some shipments via the Emirates airline.
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The brand was present in the Brazilian Coffee Week at the Dubai Museum late last year. “We have an agent in Dubai that does distribution, stock and engages with customers. She’s negotiating with Carrefour, too,” the founder said. In addition to Amazing, the Brazilian company also manufactures an Emirati private label, Uksh, with roasted beans.
Single-source coffee
Since 2000, the farm in Batatais, Alta Mogiana region, São Paulo, has produced fine coffees. The in-house roasting started in 2005. The focus is selling single-source coffees. “We are now self-sufficient, pick our own coffee, dry them out, select them, clean them. We roast them in our farm, too, and we have a machine for the packages. They are on demand, so we can make as many packages as we need,” he said on the framework that makes it possible to have a private label for small- and middle-sized customers.
Although they are focused on exporting, the brand also sells coffee and rent its machines. “Coffee has become a big business in Brazil too,” he explains on the sales via WhatsApp and the machine rental business.
Translated by Guilherme Miranda
