Alexandre Rocha*
alexandre.rocha@anba.com.br
São Paulo – Gomes da Costa, a Brazilian manufacturer of canned fish, jumped head first into the Arab market. The company has just launched and exclusive line of tuna and sardine packaging for the region, with labels in Arabic, English, and French. ANBA anticipated the strategy of the company in September last year, on the occasion of the inauguration of a new factory in Itajaí, on the coast of the southern Brazilian state of Santa Catarina.
According to the exports manager at the company, Dario Chemerinski, the first shipment of the products adapted to the Arab market arrived last Wednesday (20) in Lebanon. The shipment consisted of two containers of tuna and sardines, totalling 50 tonnes. Now, the company is negotiating sales to Jordan, Syria, and other countries in the Middle East and Africa.
In order to prevent mistakes, the packaging was reviewed by customers in the Arab world, and then sent back with the necessary corrections. "It took a while, but we did it. These packaging will help us enter the market," Chemerinski said.
Gomes da Costa had already exported to the Palestine and to Jordan. In Lebanon, the initial expectation is shipping two containers every two months, but the company hopes the volume will increase in the future. "Lebanon is like a showcase to the Arab world," Chemerinski claimed.
In addition to the Arab countries, the products with the new packaging are also being exported to East Africa. The tuna is labelled in English and Arabic, and the sardine, in English, French, and Arabic. The cans contain information such as product description, ingredients, weight, and validity. "And the labels highlight the fact that the product is made in Brazil," Chemerinski said.
The new factory in Itajaí demanded an investment of 31 million Brazilian reais (US$ 16.1 million) and has a daily production capacity of 1.5 million cans of the "easy-to-open" variety. Currently, it has a monthly output of 5 million tuna cans and 14 million sardine cans.
The goal of the Spanish group Calvo, which owns Gomes da Costa, is to have an export platform in the factory. According to Chemerinski, the foreign market absorbs 15% of production, but the company wants to increase that rate to 20% in 2008. In his assessment, the Middle East and Africa may account for 20% of exports in the future. The company employs 1,200 people.
Contact
Gomes da Costa
Dario Chemerinski
Telephone: (+55 11) 5503-6810
E-mail: dchemerinski@gomesdacosta.com.br
Site: www.gomesdacosta.com.br
*Translated by Gabriel Pomerancblum
