São Paulo – Natural stone, marble and ceramics fair Middle East Stone started this Monday (22) in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, with the presence of Brazilian companies. The CEO of the Arab Brazilian Chamber of Commerce, Michel Alaby, visited the exhibition and saw a booming market. “For what I could sense, the market’s is still trending up, these are products with a strong demand in the region due to the construction works,” said Alaby.
The Brazilian Association of the Ornamental Stone Industry (Abirochas) organized Brazil’s stand in the fair in a partnership with the Arab Chamber. The 250 square meters multi-company stand is hosting a total of 15 firms. This is the first multi-company participation organized by Abirochas. However, some of these firms taking part now have already been to other editions of the trade show individually.
The Arab Chamber’s CEO talked to exhibitors and noticed that they are pleased with the fair’s first day. The Arab Chamber’s business executive, Rafael Solimeo, who also attended the fair’s opening and is accompanying the compnaies during the four days of the trade show, said that they were very pleased with the quality of the contacts established.
Among the exhibitors, there are companies that already exported to Arab countries, some that have made sporadic deals to the region and others that still haven’t entered the local market but are planning to. According to Rafael Solimeo, the business owners believe that relationships need to be established to sell to the Arab market with, for instance, visits to Dubai three to four times per year and frequent participations in the Middle East Stone Fair.
The fair was opened this Monday by Sheikh Hamdan bin Rashid Al Maktoum, the UAE’s minister of Finances and deputy ruler of Dubai. The exhibition runs until Thursday (25) at the Dubai World Trade Centre.
*Translated by Sérgio Kakitani