São Paulo – Cooperative Agropecuária Lar, headquartered in Medianeira, in the state of Paraná, may soon close its first business with Egypt. The cooperative, which is in a trade delegation to North African and the Middle East, promoted by the Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Supply, participated in roundtables on Thursday (25), in Cairo.
"We spoke to several importers and local distributors and believe that at least three contacts will develop," said the director at the cooperative, Mário Bolt.
The cooperative has 8,100 associates, exports chicken, soy and maize, and has already participated in other delegations organized by the Ministry to Germany, Japan and China. Now, the work is for market opening in the Arab country.
"We have noticed that there is very great interest by Egyptian importers. Egypt is a great market, with significant growth and is greatly interested mainly in chicken and soy," he said.
Currently, the company exports 75% of the chicken produced and is investing in doubling its production capacity. "Today we slaughter 140,000 chickens a day and are working on increasing the total to 280,000 by the end of next year," he guaranteed.
Another executive in Egypt seeking export opportunities is Pedro Franceschi, financial director at The Tritícola Cepeense Cooperative (Cotricel), headquartered in São Sepé, in Rio Grande do Sul. "We are starting our contact with the foreign market. This is our first international mission and we were greatly pleased with the business roundtables," he said.
"We met with distributors and traders interested in importing rice. They are used to importing the product from countries like Thailand, Pakistan and Vietnam. Their rice is different in terms of preparation and is cheaper, but I believe there may be space for Brazilian rice in Egypt," said the director.
Cotricel has 4,600 associates among producers of rice, soy, maize and what.
Opportunity
According to the Market Development Analyst at the Arab Brazilian Chamber of Commerce, Fábio Ottaiano, who is accompanying the delegation, most of the Egyptian businessmen were interested in beef, chicken, fish and soy oil. That was the case, for example, of Uni Oil, which currently imports soy oil from Asia and is seeking Brazilian exporters, as well as with the North American Quality, which operates in Egypt and is seeking certified exporters of Brazilian beef.
"Brazil has a good image among the Egyptians. A large local importer that buys chicken from Sadia said that the beef being Brazilians is already a differential," he explained. "I spoke to a businessman interested in establishing a joint venture for production of chicken in Egypt, with Brazilian technology, buying used Brazilian machinery," he recalled.
According to Ottaiano, two companies showed interest in importing fish from Brazil. "They are seeking from common to exotic fish," said the analyst.
The delegation headed by the Ministry ends on December 4th. On Saturday (27), the group travels to Algeria. Next week, it will head to Ras Al Khaimah, in the United Arab Emirates.
*Translated by Mark Ament
