São Paulo –SI Global Group Purchasing Manager Nabeel Hasan (pictured) is in São Paulo for meetings with potential sugar suppliers for the Dubai, United Arab Emirates-based company. “We already buy products from Brazil, but so far we’ve bought them locally from Dubai people,” he said. The company now aims to buy it directly from Brazil and distribute it across the UAE. Other major sugar exporter is India, which is expected, however, to discontinue exports over the following months to cater to its domestic market of 1.4 billion consumers.
Hasan has met with representatives from five companies that can provide sugar to the company. “Most probably we are going to make some deal,” he said. The executive says the most consumed sugar in the Middle East is Icumsa 45, or white refined sugar, which is found in Brazil. The sugar from India is the S30.
Hasan says the sugar shipment from India takes an average of three days to arrive in Dubai. From Brazil, this climbs to 45-60 days. According to Hasan, the higher cost and timeframes are worthy it. “The difference between Brazilian sugar and Indian sugar is that [Brazil’s is] much more refined and much whiter in color. Here in Brazil [you can find] one of the best and most refined sugars in the world,” he says.
At first, the company seeks to import 30 to 60 20-TEU containers of white sugar a month. (TEU is the abbreviation of twenty-foot equivalent unit.) “Once the trust is built with the sugar processor, we are most likely going to buy a complete vessel,” he says. The plan is to buy from Brazil already refined sugar in 50-kg packages and separating it in Dubai into packages of up to 1 kg to sell them to the final consumer.
Besides sugar, in this first visit to São Paulo, Hasan is seeking information about potential suppliers of black pepper, rice, and coffee. Its major suppliers of coffee are currently Turkey and some African states.
Translated by Guilherme Miranda
