São Paulo – The United Arab Emirates are among the target markets for the Program for Sectorial Development of Grape Juice, established by the Brazilian Wine Institute (Ibravin) and the Brazilian Fruit Institute (Ibraf), in partnership with the Brazilian Export and Investment Promotion Agency (Apex-Brasil). The first activity this year should be participation in the Gulfood, the largest food sector fair in the Middle East, to take place in February, in Dubai.
At the fair, companies will be at the Ibraf stand, where visitors may sample natural ready-to-drink juice. According to the coordinator of the Ibravin program, Raquel Rohden, Brazil is renowned in the foreign market for concentrated and industrialized juice. “The objective of the program is to promote natural juice, which has grater added value,” she said.
The Setorial Grape Juice Program was established in August last year and up to now already includes 20 companies. For the activities for 2010 and 2011, the four priority countries of the program are the United States, Canada, Angola and the United Arab Emirates. For the coming two years, countries like Chile, Colombia, Guatemala and Venezuela have already been worked. In total, 29 markets have been analysed for definition of targets.
The selection of the priority countries was due to a study by the Apex, which evaluated several variables. According to Raquel, the choice of Dubai was due to the fact that it is a gateway into the Arab market, due to the high per capita income, the great tourism, which helps promote the image of Brazilian juice, the fact that the emirate imports large volumes of food and also to the fact that the religion in the country does not allow the consumption of alcoholic beverages.
According to Raquel, in 2009, one of the companies in the program participated in a delegation to Dubai, promoted by the Apex, and was successful in the promotion of natural grape juice. This year, the company has already enrolled for participation in the Gulfood.
One of the differentials of Brazilian juice, according to Raquel, is the diversity of the grapes in the country, which makes the product tastier.
The country produces around 1.2 million tonnes of grapes a year. Of this total, 45% is turned to processing for elaboration of wines, juices and other products, and 55% is sold as table grapes. According to figures disclosed by the Ibravin, of the total industrialized products, 77% are table wines and 9% grape juices.
*Translated by Mark Ament
