São Paulo – The Brazilian companies attending Saudi Build, Saudi Arabia’s largest building industry fair, which started this Monday (18th) and will continue until next Thursday (21st) in Riyadh, claim to be making good contacts at the event, and are already expecting to sign deals with the Arabs.
“The trade show is great. Yesterday, we had several visits at the stand. The fair this year is being much larger than last year in number of exhibitors and visitors too,” says Cláudio Vogel Filho, the commercial director of company Cláudio Vogel, the leading exporter of ceramic tiles in Brazil. Cláudio Vogel is taking part in the stand organized by event company Conceito, which also counts on the presence of the Arab Brazilian Chamber of Commerce.
The Cláudio Vogel company already has an exclusive distributor in Saudi Arabia which, according to Vogel, has purchased 20 containers’ worth of tiles this year alone. During the fair, he expects to close another deal with the same client. “I believe that we are leaving here with orders for at least ten containers,” claimed Vogel in a telephone interview to ANBA.
Established two years ago, wood company Madeireira Tauari, based in the city of Cajuru, in the interior of the state of São Paulo, does not export yet, and regarded Saudi Build as a good opportunity to prospect the foreign market for deals. “There is a lot going on, I was surprised,” says Osnim Paiva, the company’s sales representative, regarding the first two days of the event. “There was a strong demand, lots of interested parties. I hope to close good deals at the fair,” he stated.
According to Paiva, the company wants to export products made from eucalyptus wood and sucupira, a type of wood native of the Brazilian cerrado (savannah) region. He claims that the eucalyptus wood, for instance, can be used in the building of houses, furniture, pallets etc.
The Arab Brazilian Chamber of Commerce is represented at the event by Market Development analyst Marcus Vinícius. The Brazilian stand also includes the Brazilian embassy in Riyadh and the two companies mentioned above.
*Translated by Gabriel Pomerancblum