São Paulo – Brazilian food exporters talked sales this Wednesday (4th) with importers from Jordan at a matchmaking event at the offices of the Arab Brazilian Chamber of Commerce. The meeting was part of the schedule of the delegation from the Middle Eastern country attending the São Paulo Supermarkets Association Fair (Apas Fair).
Anderlon Santos, the CEO for import-export company West Food, said his company is strong in the Middle East, shipping beef, poultry and lamb meat to countries such as Iran, Iraq, Bahrain, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates.
“We spoke with Mr. Ahmad [Nazmi], of the company Talhouni. He is interested in chicken to sell to Jordanian soldiers,” Santos said. He explained that all of the chicken Talhouni sells is supplied by the meat packer Nicolini. He is in talks to ship 1,000 tons a month to the Jordanian company. Currently, West Food sells approximately 1,500 tons of beef and poultry to the Middle East each month.
The company Cavalcante, on the other hand, makes peanut oil, peanut flour, coffee and candy. “The Arab market is a market we have a great deal of interest in. The Arab Chamber is helping out a lot. We became members a month ago and had our labels and folders translated, and now we are about to start having our website translated,” said owner Cyro Cavalcante.
The business owner spoke with representatives from Jordan’s Hararah Trading and BCC, and said both of the latter are interested in peanut oil, coffee pods and peanut flour. “They want to taste the product first. The plan is to get into Middle East retail chains,” he said, adding that negotiations are “at an advanced stage” and that the next step will be shipping samples to the Arab country.
Renato Miralla, a partner at importer/exporter MBR Company, talked to a trader with Khader Al-Amouri & Sons Co. The Brazilian company sells fresh fruit to the Middle East and is looking to begin exporting green coffee.
“A year ago, we entered in a partnership with Brazil’s second biggest Arabica coffee cooperative in Brazil, which is Cocatrel [from the state of Minas Gerais], to sell the cooperative’s coffee direct. They produce approximately 2 million bags of green coffee per year,” Miralla said.
He also said the conversation with the Jordanian went “very well.” “He is an active importer of green coffee. He imports 100 to 150 containers’ worth of Brazilian coffee a year and we are offering the alternative of buying direct from the cooperative,” Miralla asserted. “The new coffee crop begins in 30 days. As soon as the crop comes into the cooperative, we will be able to work out the conditions, provide samples and eventually strike a deal,” he explained.
*Translated by Gabriel Pomerancblum
