São Paulo – Al Meera, one of the main supermarket groups in Qatar, is seeking suppliers of products like rice, sugar and chicken in Brazil. The deputy CEO at the company, Mohammed Bin Nasser Al-Qahtani, spent the week in São Paulo with this objective in mind, and on Thursday (12) visited the offices of the Arab Brazilian Chamber of Commerce seeking support to find other Brazilian exporters with whom to make contact.
Apart from supplying its own shops, including supermarkets and hypermarkets, Al Meera aims to find companies interested in having an exclusive representative in Qatar, as his company operates both in retail and wholesale. It has 23 shops and recently acquired four under flag Giant, originally Saudi.
The group already imports from Brazil, but aims to change its relations with suppliers. "We have agents and buy from these agents, but our intention is to make direct contact, without intermediaries,” said Qahtani to ANBA.
The executive pointed out that he has made good business contact in Brazil up to now and that, "if successful”, Al Meera plans to import a great volume of food products.
According to Qahtani, the company was established 25 years ago in the shape of trade cooperatives, having been brought together under the same Al Meera brand in 2005. The company is listed, with shares traded on the Qatar Stock Exchange, and 26% belong to the government. The executive pointed out state support to the promotion of business abroad.
The group has among its main competitors the French Carrefour and the Indian Lulu, both with strong operation in Qatar and the Middle East as a whole. Qahtani said that the company aims to grow, initially, mainly in the Arab nations.
*Translated by Mark Ament