São Paulo – Brazil’s agricultural machinery company Jacto, which specializes in farming technology, is looking to work in cooperation with Morocco. Its commercial manager Gustavo Serizawa points out that knowledge could be shared in precision agriculture and spraying equipment. “We would like to cooperate in implementing new technologies. We take great pride in somehow contributing to that growth [in farming technology],” Serizawa said during the webinar “Morocco and Brazil: Agribusiness Connecting Continents.” The event was hosted this Wednesday (9) by the Arab-Brazilian Chamber of Commerce (ABCC). It got viewed by 880 people in Brazil and the world over.
In a bid to tap into farming opportunities in Morocco, Jacto joined the International Agricultural Exhibition (SIAM) in the Arab country two years ago. “It’s a really interesting show. We hope to attend again. We spoke with importers and distributors. [We found] an open market for mechanization. That led us to develop [portables division] Jacto Portáteis, due to the characteristics of tomato farming along the coast, hydroponic systems, citrus farming in the east, and olive farming. There are great business opportunities available in machinery and knowledge sharing.”
The manager explained that the company went so far as to engage in negotiations, but those did not go through. “Our biggest issue is logistics, and then taxes. There are some policies in place which benefit closer partners of Morocco’s, and I believe we can do more work on that,” he said, adding that funding is a third aspect that could be improved.
Also featured in the webinar was Patrícia Gomes, the executive director on Foreign Markets with the Brazilian Machinery and Equipment Industry Association (Abimaq). She said the Brazilian and Moroccan agribusiness industries complement one another, and discussed existing opportunities and challenges. Gomes mentioned ongoing Moroccan government plans including Plan Maroc Vert, which emphasizes family farming and tech investments. “Brazil isn’t a relevant supplier of machinery and equipment to Morocco, so there’s room for improvement there. Brazil is the eighth biggest machinery and equipment producing country in the world. We must think of Brazil as a producer of technology,” she said.
The director remarked that harvesters and sprayers are Brazil’s biggest-selling pieces of farming machinery. Regarding the industry’s willingness to increase trade with Morocco, Gomes explains that the latter country can be a gateway into the entire surrounding region. “Morocco is a regional hub,” she explained.
The opening of the webinar featured Brazil’s ambassador to Rabat, Julio Bitelli, and Morocco’s ambassador to Brasília, Nabil Adghoghi, who said events such as the webinar are crucial in spawning actions conducive to trade. “Morocco is a good market as it is. In order to improve its performance, Moroccan agriculture will require highly competitive farming machinery, and Brazilian farming machinery is perfectly able to service that,” he said.
Bitelli said this is a good time in Brazil-Morocco relations and went over what the most promising sectors are. “Honey, animal feed, dairy, cattle embryo are fields in which we can see good results in a relatively short time span,” Brazil’s ambassador to Rabat said.
The webinar was moderated by ABCC Institutional Relations manager Fernanda Baltazar. “This discussion was excellent. Everyone went over aspects of cooperation and improvement. Let’s increase mutual awareness of these markets. That can lead to much bigger bilateral trade,” said Baltazar.
The event was kicked off by ABCC president Rubens Hannun. Panelists included Olavio Takenaka, head of OCP – Morocco’s leading fertilizer manufacturer – in Brazil. He said Brazil is a strategic market. Alexandre Morais do Amaral, a researcher, manager and international coordinator at the Brazilian Agricultural Research Corporation (Embrapa), discussed Brazilian agriculture and existing partnership opportunities in innovation and technology. Brazil’s agricultural attaché to Morocco, Nilson César Castanheira Guimarães, went over how to enhance economic complementarity between Brazil and Morocco.
More on the webinar will be available soon here on ANBA.
You can watch the full webinar on the Arab Chamber’s YouTube channel:
Translated by Gabriel Pomerancblum