São Paulo – The exhibition area of the Economic Forum Brazil & Arab Countries includes a café featuring several rooms where exhibitors and visitors can get interact using intermittent Zoom meetings. That’s where most of the interfacing is taking place. The forum is running from Monday (19) to Thursday (22), hosted by the Arab Brazilian Chamber of Commerce (ABCC) in partnership with the Union of Arab Chambers and the Arab League. Also featured are several panels.
The Projects and Business development analyst with Maritime logistics company Juliana Caetano said lots of networking is taking place in the café with visitors and among exhibitors themselves. “It’s the busiest room of all. At a point there were forty people there at once,” she said. Upon entering, visitors are invited by ABCC Commercial Department staff to introduce themselves and make their information available in a chat. Several meetings have been scheduled as a result. Unimar provides solutions in logistics, maritime agency, air and sea freight, market intelligence, and logistics.
Unimar Projects and Business Development manager Pedro Oliveira told ANBA during a virtual meeting on the platform that the company had about ten meetings so far, including with companies in Egypt and Saudi Arabia. “The Saudis were shopping for sugar, and we spoke with an Egyptian state-run company whose job it is to foster business deals.”
He said the exhibition area is a completely new experience. “We may not be getting as many contacts as we’d expected, but the quality of these contacts is great. It’s a great experience,” he said. He also said he had meetings with companies that deal in mineral water, animal, banks, and various export-import companies. Unimar also had meetings with other exhibiting enterprises, like Private Cosméticos.
Private Cosméticos Export assistant Márcio Gabriel told ANBA during another virtual meeting that the first day was slow, but that meetings and contacts started picking up yesterday, and today (Wednesday 21st) has been the day with the most visits. “There’s no comparing it with the actual fair, but we’re getting to meet lots of people at the café and that’s where we’re getting good contacts. That’s where we are having the most conversations. You see who’s coming in, people introduce themselves and we get to schedule meetings with prospective clients.”.
He got ten contacts, and negotiations are underway with five of them. “We found a great contact in Saudi Arabia that’s seeking a specific hair repair product. We’re also speaking with a company in Portugal,” said Gabriel. Pictured above are Ali Darwish, from the Commercial Dept. (L); Márcio Antonio (C), the CEO and Márcio Gabriel’s father; and Márcio Gabriel (R).
The executive director at Brazil’s Banco BS2, Carlos Eduardo Andrade, said joining an event of this breadth involves much more than going after business deals. “Going forward, Banco BS2 is starting to build longstanding, fruitful partnerships with the Arab community. One hands-on example is the fact that BS2 has become the ABCC’s partner bank for its blockchain-based document validation project, and that paves the way for a bevy of possibilities, and it allows us to bring even more innovation to the system,” Andrade said.
The bank had its first-ever e-booth in the event, where it presented its flagship product – foreign exchange operations. “We are in serious talks with several companies, and we are confident we’ll get our bank to a new level by working with this demographic.”
ABCC Commercial manager Daniella Leite said she’s happy with the interactions in the café. “While designing the project, we conceived this area as a place for Brazilian and Arab executives to meet up and introduce themselves. And that’s exactly what’s happening. We’re keeping track of the networking and the deals that are going on for our member companies. There’s another day to go and I believe there’s more to come.”
Fabiano Furlan, the Export manager with meat packer Prima Foods, said contacts are going well in the exhibition area. “We haven’t had that many contacts so far, but we got inquiries from people in the UAE, Saudi Arabia and Qatar. We haven’t closed any deals yet, but the platform is working well,” he told ANBA.
“We had numerous meetings with local and foreign parties throughout the event, lots of visits and negotiations underway,” said Chaiboun Darwiche, the CEO with certifier organization SIILHalal, another exhibitor.
Exhibiting companies also include BRF, the Khalifa Industrial Zone Abu Dhabi (KIZAD), Tradeling, Fambras Halal, Egyptian Exporters Association (Expolink), Neom, JBS, Qualitá Group, Banco BS2, Porto do Itaqui, Cdial Halal, the Dubai Airport Freezone Authority (Dafza), the Dubai Electricity and Water Authority (DEWA), Soma Mater, and TV Bandeirantes. A&G Solution is sponsoring the café area. Visitors can also refer to the ABCC booth, where Commercial Dept. personnel will be ready to help you out.
Check out the full coverage on ANBA.
Translated by Gabriel Pomerancblum
