São Paulo – Novo Mel, which has factories in the city of São Paulo, is negotiating with seven Arab countries in the Middle East and North Africa. The importers are from Saudi Arabia, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, Jordan, Kuwait, Morocco and Sudan. The contacts were established during the Gulfood, the largest fair in the food industry in the Middle East, which took place in February, in Dubai, in the Emirates.
The company has already developed special packages with text in Arabic for honey and propolis spray without alcohol in the formula, and has got halal and organic certification and sent the first samples. "We are now in the final part of price and delivery time negotiations," said the company export manager, Carlos Pamplona Rehder.
According to Rehder, the company is negotiating with distributors of food, supermarket owners and industries. "We are opening the market practically from scratch. Brazil currently almost does not export honey to the Arab countries. Europe is the main importer of our honey and then reexports to the Arab market. What we are doing is negotiating directly, with no intermediaries," said Rehder.
Novo Mel processes from five to seven tonnes of honey a month. Of this total, around 10% is exported. The company was born exporting, in 1995, selling propolis to Japan. However, sales to the country were interrupted and in 2000 the company returned to sales on the foreign market.
Now the company exports to Mexico, Angola, China and Singapore. To the foreign market, the company sells honey under its own brand in packages ranging from 400-gram pouches to one kilogram pots.
The products made by Novo Mel are traded at chemists, supermarkets, hotels and industrial kitchens, in bottles, glass jars, spray and pouches. The raw material is bought from bee farms and is processed by the industry. Currently, Novo Mel has four main monthly suppliers. At times of greater demand they also buy from small beekeepers.
Contact
Telephone: (+55 11) 3721-5693
Site: www.novomel.com.br
E-mail: carlos@novomel.com.br
*Translated by Mark Ament
