Dubai – Brazilian companies participating in Gulfood closed deals and hope to receive more orders in coming months. The food sector fair ended on Thursday (28), in Dubai, in the United Arab Emirates, after four busy days. The general evaluation of companies is that the number of visitors and of contacts made was higher than in previous years.
In the case of the Brazilian Fruit Institute (Ibraf), which brought eight exhibitors to the fair in partnership with the Brazilian Export and Investment Promotion Agency (Apex), the return given by companies was that business of US$ 8.5 million was closed, 30% more than in the 2012 edition. For the coming 12 months, expectations are for US$ 36 million in deals due to the fair.
"Businessmen were very pleased with the results and the movement at the fair,” said Luciana Pacheco, manager of the Ibraf/Apex project. "The evaluation is that the volume and quality of contacts was greater than in 2012,” she added.
According to her, to the Ibraf, Gulfood is an “excellent option to show the diversity of Brazilian products.” Two of the highlights, in her opinion, were assai and cashew juice.
“Assai was very successful. Despite having a different flavour, [visitors] liked it very much, that was also the case with cashew juice, which is also something that they do not know,” she pointed out. Two companies offered assai at the Ibraf stand, and one took cashew juice. “They are seeking new flavours and this is an opportunity to present them,” she pointed out.
Brazilian exhibitors were brought together in stands divided by kind of product, each organized by a sectorial organisation in partnership with the Apex. Apart from fruit, there were spaces for beef, chicken, biscuits and pasta, sweets and coffee. Some companies had their own installations.
“There was intense visitation and some effective contacts,” explained the export manager of biscuit company Mabel, Waleska Rodrigues Rocha. The company was acquired by Pepsico in 2011. According to her, Mabel has a client in the Emirates who sells to other countries, especially in Africa. Now the company wants a distributor to place the products on the local market.
At the Arab Brazilian Chamber of Commerce and Apex stand, Brazilian businessmen who were not exhibiting had a base for contacts. “All companies I spoke to were satisfied with the Arab Brazilian Chamber and Apex support,” said Rafael Abdulmassih, who is responsible for the business area at the Arab Brazilian Chamber.
His evaluation of the fair was positive. “The pavilion was crowded and the volume of products offered was very good. This is truly the place to do good business each year,” he pointed out, recalling the solid presence not just of Arab visitors, but also of Asians, Africans and Europeans.
Abdulmassih and the marketing manager at the Arab Brazilian Chamber, Karina Cassapula, also had meetings with organisations interested in promoting business with Brazil, like the export promotion agencies of Qatar and Libya, DMG, the organizer of Gulfood, and Dewa, the Dubai water and electricity utility.
Charity
At the end, the samples that remained were donated to a charity in an initiative by the Brazilian Daniela Vilela, who lives in Dubai. She helps an orphanage that takes care of 70 children in Nairobi, Kenya.
Vilela learnt about the organisation, run by a couple of Kenyans, during a holiday trip with her family. “We were enchanted with the place and wanted to help,” she said, adding that the children are very poor and that she has been mobilizing other Brazilians who live in Dubai to make donations. The initiative has already managed, for example, to replace the mattresses on which the children sleep, which were in very bad shape. “The donations come naturally,” she said.
The Apex project manager, Carla Rodrigues, said that the idea of donating the samples came now, but that it may become a tradition. “The idea, for 2014, is to promote the strategy in advance, to talk to companies prior to their trip,” she said.
Those interested in contributing to Daniela Vilela’s project contact her through email danisabh@gmail.com.
*Translated by Mark Ament
