São Paulo – Brazil is being targeted by the Egyptian aromatic and medicinal plant industry. Representatives of a project named Emap (Egyptian Medicinal and Aromatic Plants) are now in Brazil to get to know the local market and look for importers of their products. They are visiting the Food Ingredients South America fair, in São Paulo, and attending meetings with local companies, organized by the Arab Brazilian Chamber of Commerce, until next Friday (21st).
The Emap project was established in 2011 through a partnership between the Swiss and Egyptian governments, with management from the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (Unido), to promote the Arab country’s medicinal and aromatic plant industry.
“It involves herb and spice products, essential oils, and all sorts of items which can be used as medicine and food additives,” explained Mahmoud Abdelsalam, national project coordinator, during a visit to the Arab Brazilian Chamber. “We export approximately 90% of our output, and we work with producers in all segments of the value chain in Egypt, including farmers, traders, exporters and service providers, such as certifier companies, government institutes, and research centres.”
Abdelsalam explains that before coming to Brazil, a study took place in which it was identified that Brazil imports products like essential oils, herbs spices and pharmaceutical plants form Argentina, India, Germany and other countries. According to him, this may represent an opportunity for Egypt, as the country also produces and exports these items to the European Union and the United States. According to him, few companies in the Emap sell directly to Brazil.
“We are visiting the fair to locate a large number of importers who deal in the same products as us, so that we can increase and expand our export portfolio to Brazil, which is a new market to Egyptian companies.” According to him, Brazil has been chosen as a target for the industry as a result of a demand from Egyptian exporters, who believe the country to be a “place full of opportunities.”
The executive claimed that this is a prospecting mission, and that the project intends to conduct a business mission to the country comprising industry exporters within two or three months.
Currently, Egypt produces 69,000 tonnes of medicinal and aromatic plants per year, said Abdelsalam. Revenues from exports average at US$ 120 million per year. The Emap works with 130 Egyptian exporters, who represent 80% to 90% of formal exporters in the Egyptian industry.
The Emap works in two main fronts. The first one aims to improve the quality of each step in the plant production chain. The second one is to grant farmers access to the foreign market.
According to the Spanish Maria Teresa Poveda, the Emap technical officer, the project’s export section operates based on three pillars. One is product development, seeking new plants for which global demand is strong and which may not exist in Egypt, and encouraging exports of value-added products instead of raw material. The second one is a consortium for small and medium businesses to export together, thus becoming stronger when facing international competition. The third one is attending international fairs and promoting meetings between Egyptian exporters and foreign buyers.
“Thus, we connect to domestic and international initiatives in order to help our companies with market intelligence data and meetings with international buyers,” said Poveda.
The Emap project will last four years, up until the end of 2014. Presently, the main buyers of Egyptian medicinal and aromatic plants are United States, Europe, Japan and Australia. Additional information on Emap is available at www.emap-eg.org.
*Translated by Gabriel Pomerancblum
