Geovana Pagel
São Paulo – The Brazilian Zebu Breeders Association (ABCZ), through the Brazilian Cattle Genetics (BCG) consortium, is promoting the quality of Brazilian zebu cattle, its genetics, and state of the art technology used, at the Cairo International Fair. The consortium counts on technical and financial cooperation between the ABCZ and the Brazilian Export Promotion Agency (Apex).
Representatives from the ABCZ travelled to Cairo on March 12, five days before the fair started, so they could have time to visit centres for livestock production, universities, and companies connected to trade of genetic material and live animals. BCG has a private area at the fair. All the other Brazilian representatives at the fair are together at the Arab Brazilian Chamber of Commerce (CCAB) stand.
"We also got in contact with the Egyptian government and visited the Egyptian Genetic Research Institute," explains the ABCZ International Relations supervisor, Jorge Dias.
"The fair is very busy, and we have already had opportunities to talk to various importers and have scheduled meetings with sector businessmen. The possibilities of closing deals up to the end of the fair are very large," he guaranteed.
According to the supervisor, the idea is to establish a strong Brazilian representation in the Arab market, part of the consortium global operation to expand zebu genes. "We decided to come to the fair due to its scope," he declared.
Internationally, Brazilian Zebu breeders ended the year of 2003 with good reasons to commemorate. Brazilian Cattle Genetics forecasts an investment of around US$ 900,000 in marketing and promotion of zebu cattle genetic material abroad.
The target is ambitious: to increase semen, embryo, and live high lineage animal export to US$ 14.8 million by the end of 2004. In 2002 the total exported was US$ 823,000.
To reach such revenues, the ABCZ is beginning a project with three export companies. But, next year, another 14 companies will be prepared to enter the international market, contributing to expand sales. With this, the sector will generate 600 new work spots.
The strategies will focus mainly on ten countries on four continents. The export nucleus should reach total annual business of around US$ 200 million by 2006, with semen, embryo, and live animal sales.
The BCG project is to negotiate an annual volume of 300,000 doses of semen, 20,000 embryos, and 350,000 live heads of cattle (50,000 pure and 300,000 commercial).
