Dubai – Brazilian companies exhibiting at Gulfood closed deals with importers in the food sector fair in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. This is the case with Ruette Spice, from Campinas, in the interior of São Paulo, which exports pepper produced in Espírito Santo and Pará. According to export manager Cristina Guerreiro, the company received orders for around 300 tonnes in the first three days of the fair.
"This fair is spectacular, it is the best, even better than Sial and Anuga," she said on Wednesday (27), referring to the two main fairs in the sector, which took place respectively in France and Germany. “Only people in the sector come,” she said.
She added that, despite the event being promoted in Duabi, she did much business with importers from Pakistan and Egypt. Those who buy pepper are normally factories and companies that pack the product to resell on the retail market.
Guerreiro pointed out that she did not sell more because the company stocks are low and because many buyers are waiting for the crop in Vietnam, in two weeks’ time, to learn about prices on the international market. “Demand is much greater,” he said.
Likewise, Fabio Correa Lima, from Agro Food, said he also closed deals. “We have many clients here,” he said. The company trades coffee, spices and beans. Importers are generally wholesalers and industrialists.
Lima says that he has been participating in Gulfood since it started being promoted. “The fair is very good, we have been here eight or nine times,” he said.
In the same line, the executive director at the Brazilian Beef Industry and Exporters Association (Abiec), Fernando Sampaio, said that slaughterhouses close deals at the fair. “The fair is always very good, people like coming, much business is done,” he said. "The Middle East is very important for us,” he added. Eight of the ten Abiec associates are present at the Gulfood.
Germani, in the biscuit, pasta and cereal area, is exhibiting at the fair for the first time. “It is better than we expected,” said Julio Reichel, the sales manager. The company belongs to Agrale, the Brazilian vehicle maker.
He and foreign trade supervisor Patrícia Guetthes sought distributors and said they have made good contacts. The bet is practically on biscuit exports. Although the company does not yet sell in the region, it has done its homework and has packages in Arabic, as well as English, French and Spanish. They plan to return to the even next year.
Sabah Al-Sabah, from the Kuwaiti Braz Foods, which sells brand Açaí Brasil, supplied by Amazônia Energy, is also expecting business. "Assai was not known in the region, but now it is better,” he said. “If it depends on promises [made by importers], there will no longer be any more assai in Pará,” joked Sérgio Nunes, from Amazônia Energy.
The commercial manager at lemon exporter Gibran, Ederson Nogueira, said that Gulfood this year is better than last year. "[The fair] grows yearly,” he said.
According to him, the company sells fresh limes to the region, but the business is still small and the main market is still Europe. That is because Sicilian lemon is more used in the Middle East and there is competition with India, whose prices are lower.
Gulfood ends on Thursday (28). The day lasts four days.
*Translated by Mark Ament
