São Paulo – The Brazilian Cocoa and Confectionery Manufacturers Association (Abicab) will promote the country’s participation in the Sweets & Snacks Middle East fair, due from November 17th to 19th in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. This will be Abicab’s first booth at the event.
“The Middle East is becoming one of the main confectionery hubs in the world. In Dubai, the fairs are more lively and dynamic than in Europe, and Arabs show much more interest in Brazilian product,” says Rodrigo Solano, the Export manager at Abicab.
According to Solano, Abicab had planned on having a merely institutional participation in the fair, but due to the great interest shown by Brazilian enterprises, the association arranged for three companies to join along. Jazam, Montevérgine and Peccin will be represented at the Brazilian booth. “More and more companies want to be at Middle East fairs,” he says.
The Abicab manager explains that Saudi Arabia, Yemen and Libya are target markets of the Brazilian confectionery industry. “And Dubai is always a spot for promotional actions,” he says.
The executive notes that Brazilian confectionery companies are looking to internationalize their products and packaging. “They are setting out to learn about the Arabs’ tastes, what they buy,” he says. Solano explains that companies are looking to explore typical Brazilian flavours and ingredients like assai, brigadeiro and peanuts.
Solano also explains that Arab importers will buy both high value-added products and cheaper ones. “The Arabs have a two-pronged strategy: they target the local market with premium products, and then they focus on pricing when it comes to supplying the African market,” he says.
With regard to the North Africa countries, however, this scenario is about to change. “Retail is growing, and that tends to create a demand for higher-end product,” he says.
From January through July this year, Brazil exported US$ 175.9 million worth of confectionery items, amounting to 65,300 tonnes of sweets. Of those, 2,100 tonnes were shipped to the Middle East, fetching US$ 5.4 million in revenues.
“Our exports are meagre considering the existing potential. We have the world’s third leading confectionery industry, second only to the United States and the United Kingdom. According to data from Euromonitor, we should have the second largest output by 2016,” says Solano. He believes that if the industry’s export strategies are successful, exports may also grow significantly during the period.
Sweets & Snacks Middle East is currently in its seventh edition. The fair is organized in partnership by the Dubai World Trade Center and Koelnmesse GmbH, a German company responsible for ISM-Cologne, the world’s leading confectionery fair.
For additional information go to www.sweetsmiddleeast.com.
*Translated by Gabriel Pomerancblum
