São Paulo – Four Brazilian rice producers will take part in the Foodex Saudi, a food products trade show in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. From Sunday (12) to Wednesday (15), companies Arrozeira Pelotas, Camil Alimentos, Josapar and Nelson Wendt will exhibit their products to the Saudis and other importers of the region at the stand of Brazilian Rice, a sector project carried on by a partnership between the Brazilian Rice Industry Association (ABIARROZ) and the Brazilian Trade and Investment Promotion Agency (Apex-Brasil).
It will be the first Brazilian participation in the fair, which will gather this year 520 brands from 214 exhibitors from 32 countries. According to the event’s organization, imports of food and beverages by Saudi Arabia should climb from the current USD 21 billion to USD 34 billion in 2020.
“It’s not a very large fair, if compared to this type of events in Latin America, but it’s very focused on food products and attracts a large number of rice producers, especially from India, Pakistan, Thailand and United States,” says Diogo Thomé, trade promotion executive of the Brazilian Rice project.
The executive came to Foodex Saudi last year in a survey mission to plan this year’s actions. According to him, the Saudis consume a lot of Indian rice, but there’s room for Brazilian parboiled rice. “It’s a market that imports a lot of rice. Besides India, the United States are a large supplier and it’s in this spot that we can compete,” he says.
Saudi Arabia is one of the target markets of the Brazilian Rice project – and it will remain this way, since it kept its status in the renewal of the partnership this year. From January to October of last year, the Brazilian rice sector exported 5,000 tons of rice to the Saudis, a volume that climbed to 7,000 tons in the same period this year. Counting on the results of the fair, the expectation is to reach 10,000 tons exported in 2018’s first ten months, according to the executive.
Thomé takes off to Jeddah on Friday’s (10) early hours and will work on the assembly of the Brazilian stand the next day. Since it’s the first time that Brazil takes part in the trade show, Thomé refrained from a forecast on deals. In addition to exhibiting products, the Brazilian stand will hold a cooking and tasting marketing action to display the different features of the Brazilian rice.
*Translated by Sérgio Kakitani
