São Paulo – Having been the sole representative in Brazil of United Arab Emirates-based brand Date Crown since 2023, Julia de Biase now takes a step further with the date firm’s parent company Al Foah. The UAE’s company, Brazil’s Vitao Alimentos and she have partnered up for a new project to increase sales of date jams, raise the Brazilian awareness on the fruit and eventually export made-in-Brazil date-based products. The announcement was made during the APAS Show, a leading grocery retailer exhibition that is running in São Paulo through Thursday (16).
Date Crown participates in the APAS Show in two areas. One is its own and the other is in the Arab Space, the stand organized by the Arab-Brazilian Chamber of Commerce (ABCC) that holds Arab exhibitors at the show. “Being at the APAS Show is a way to showcase to Brazilian retailers how dates are important for both final consumers and food service. And show Brazilians that [Al Foah] is in over 50 countries and grows 126,000 tonnes of dates annually. New things we’re bringing to the APAS Show include the date sugar and a partnership with Vitao,” she said.
The date sugar, Biase says, has a glycemic index that is 15 times lower compared to sugarcane’s. The fruit is also linked to disease prevention. Vitao is a manufacturer of products associated with quality of life and health, and it has teamed up with Biase and Date Crown to increase the purchase of ingredients for its date jam and widen its portfolio of date-based products.
“In the future, we plan on exporting made-in-Brazil date products to Arab countries, like chocolate dates,” said Vitao director Marina Curi. “But first we have to develop them and see if it suits the taste and preferences of Arab consumers,” she said. Biase spoke of launching up to 11 products through the agreement.
Dates for Brazil
Mubarak Al Mansoori, snacking & government relations president of the Agthia Group, the company that owns Al Foah, said Brazil is the leading market in the region and the company invests in the country due to its growing economy. “We feel like we could cater to the growing Brazilian economy and demand. Ours is a leading group in the Middle East and North Africa,” he said, pointing out that the Agthia Group works with food and beverages, meats and snacks. “This is the segment we are focusing on in Brazil,” he said.
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Translated by Guilherme Miranda
