São Paulo – A meeting between Brazil’s agriculture and livestock minister Carlos Fávaro and Arab diplomats brought into discussion on Wednesday (8) a series of topics on the country’s farming relations with the Arab countries and expressed the desire for more cooperation and investment between the regions. The meeting in the headquarters of the Palestinian embassy in the capital city featured the Arab-Brazilian Chamber of Commerce (ABCC).
According to ABCC president Osmar Chohfi, topics discussed included the potential mutual investment between Brazil and Arab countries in agribusiness, and the Arab interest in expanding cooperation with Brazil’s agricultural research agency Embrapa. The possibility of opening an Embrapa office in an Arab country and exchange with the Arab Center for the Studies of Arid Zones and Dry Lands (ACSAD).
The minister announced that two more Arab countries will have agricultural attachés from Brazil – Algeria and the United Arab Emirates. The attachés are employed by the Ministry of Agriculture and work in Brazil’s embassies abroad aiming to strengthen farming relations between Brazil and the region where they are stationed. Brazil has already attachés in three Arab countries – Morocco, Saudi Arabia, and Egypt. As per the announcement, it will now have five, which is supposed to further expand the cooperation demanded by the diplomats.
Fávaro called the ambassadors from the countries to invest in the National Program for the Conversion of Degraded Pastures launched by the federal government to recover and convert into agricultural production systems up to 40 million hectares in ten years. The ambassadors showed interest in the program, and potential investments in fertilizers were also discussed. Brazil has a strategy to widen the national production of fertilizers and has sought investors.
The meeting opened with a topic that runs through Brazil-Arab relations – food security. Brazilians are major food suppliers to the region, which has no natural conditions for vast farming production. Chohfi talked about the topic, pointing out that Brazil accounts for 8% of the total Arab imports of agri-food products, and 45% of halal meats.
Arab-Brazilian Chamber‘s study on farming cooperation
Osmar Chohfi said the ABCC is ready to cooperate with the federal government in boosting trade, cooperation and investments between Brazil and the Arab countries. At the end of the meeting, he delivered to minister Fávaro the study “Brazil and Arab Countries – Overview and Opportunities in Agribusiness”. The material was delivered by the ABCC with an overview of the current trade relation between the regions in farming and growth potential based on grounds such as the need for food security, population growth, and diversification of Arab economies.
ABCC secretary-general and CEO Tamer Mansour made a presentation on Brazil-Arab agribusiness relation together with Federation of Muslim Associations in Brazil (FAMBRAS) chairman Ali Zoghbi. They addressed Brazil’s power as a supplier of halal goods to Arab and Islamic countries, as well as other topics of the relation like opportunities and obstacles to overcome.
Solidarity and cooperation
Palestine’s ambassador Ibrahim Alzeben, who is the dean of Council of Arab Ambassadors in Brazil, received the representatives of the federal government as well as other ambassadors and participants. The diplomats expressed their solidarity to the minister over the catastrophe that Brazilian state Rio Grande do Sul has faced due to heavy rains and flooding that have claimed 100 lives – 128 people are still missing and thousands have been displaced.
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The meeting featured Brazil’s agricultural ministry officials Carlos Goulart, Marcel Moreira, and Julio Ramos, foreign ministry official Carlos Duarte, as well as Empraba chairman Carlos Ernesto Augustin, and FAMBRAS chairman Mohamed Zoghbi and project development and institutional relations director Delduque Martins.
Translated by Guilherme Miranda
