São Paulo – The first day of international business matchmaking at the International Fair of Plastics and Rubber (Plástico Brasil) started with a new development: for the first time an Egyptian representative met with Brazilian companies as part of the Buyer Project of the Brazil Machinery Solutions (BMS) program, a partnership between the Brazilian Trade and Investments Promotion Agency (Apex-Brasil) and the Brazilian Machinery and Equipment Industry Association (Abimaq).
Sayed Morsy is the representative of fifteen companies located throughout the Middle East and North Africa – some of them operate also in Iran and Turkey. He said that he was selected by the program with the help of the Arab Brazilian Chamber of Commerce and became interested in visiting Brazil for the first time.
“I have never done business with Brazilians. I have been working for more than forty years with imports and had never thought of being here one day,” said the Egyptian in an interview to ANBA, this Tuesday (21), during a break between meetings at the BMS stand at Plástico Brasil at the São Paulo Expo in São Paulo.
The buyer is in search of machinery for the production of plastics in general. He mentioned as examples machineries for injection molding, blow molding, die casting, blown film, extrusion for different applications and bag making. However, Morsy admits that he hasn’t come with anything specific in his mind: his goal is to get to know the Brazilian market, prospect new businesses and follow up on the talks. “But if the price is competitive, no problem, we will buy it,” he said, without mentioning the amount he’s planning to spend on Brazilian products.
On Tuesday, the Egyptian had meetings with twelve Brazilian companies and new talks were scheduled for the next day. Morsy also wants to walk around the fair, which opened on Monday (20) and runs until Friday (24), to make more contacts and visit the stands of the companies to which he had talks.
For the buyer, Brazilian business owners have the willingness to do business, but still needs to get to know better the needs of the industries of the Arab countries. “One has to know exactly what is needed and the configurations,” he explains. He suggests for those interested to open branches in the Middle East. “I can help building these branches, even with resources,” he added.
Indeed, the machinery and equipment industry does not export much to the region, according to Patricia Gomes, Abimaq’s foreign market manager. She said that other buyers from the region were selected to come to this year’s edition of the fair, but that only Morsy accepted the invitation.
“The companies export a lot to Latin America countries and the United States, already solid and consolidated markets. Now, they wish to expand their range and, based on internal studies, we have identified opportunities in regions such as the Middle East, India and Russia, with the last two also sending representatives to this edition of the fair,” she explained.
According to the manager, this is only the first step to carve out a space to the Brazilian industry in the Arab market. “In case the negotiations move forward, we will also take new steps and, who knows, start to plan attendance to fairs in the region,” she said.
Last year, exports by the sector of machinery and accessories to the plastic-processing industry reached USD 64.1 million, an increase of 26% over 2015. Colombia, Mexico and Argentina were the main destinations for Brazilian products, according to data from Abimaq.
*Translated by Sérgio Kakitani
