São Paulo – The first pots of honey by Brazilian company Novo Mel that are turned to the Arab market should arrive in organic product supermarkets in Dubai in coming months. To promote the product, the small company from the state of São Paulo plans to organise sampling events during weekends. "We want to show the Arabs that Brazilian honey is good quality," said the export manager at the company, Carlos Rehder.
At the moment, Novo Mel is finishing the labels, to be in Arabic and English. According to Rehder, the first units should arrive in Dubai in two months time. Brazilian honey should be traded in three supermarkets of organic products in the Emirates, being one of them in Dubai Mall, which is beside Burj Dubai.
Contact with the Arab distributor was through the Foreign Trade department at the Arab Brazilian Chamber of Commerce. "We have been trying to enter this market for the last two years," said Rehder, who participated in February in the Gulfood, a fair in the food sector that took place in Dubai, and made use of the opportunity to visit the contacts suggested by the Arab Brazilian Chamber. "Without the support of the Arab Brazilian Chamber we could not have managed to close this sale," added the manager.
According to him, entering the Arab market is very difficult. "We made many contacts with the Gulfood, but it was very hard to have return," said Rehder, who already ships Novo Mel products to Mexico, the United States, Angola, China and Singapore. According to the manager, from what he saw in the organic product markets in Dubai, there are not many brands to compete with the Brazilian honey. "We saw some from Europe and Australia," he said.
Novo Mel, which processes from five to seven tonnes of honey a month, trades several flavours, like eucalyptus, wildflower and orange. To Dubai, the honeys shipped should be wildflower and eucalyptus. The company, which employs 15 people, was born as an exporter in 1995, selling propolis to Japan. However, sales to the country were interrupted and the company returned to foreign sales in 2000.
Currently, of total company production, around 10% is turned to the foreign market. According to Rehder, the Novo Mel target is for the figure to reach between 30% and 50% in five years. Apart from the honey sold in pots, the company trades the product in tubes, glass jars, spray and bags. The raw material is bought from bee farms and processed by the organisation.
*Translated by Mark Ament
