São Paulo – The first step has already been taken. Now it is time to start the engines for 2011. After starting to export industrialized products to the Arab world through Libya, this year, Cocamar Industrial Cooperative, from Paraná, hopes to sell to markets like the United Arab Emirates and Oman. The focus is on non-alcoholic beverages, like soy-based drinks with tropical fruit, in a process that began at the last Gulfood, the food sector fair promoted in February, in Dubai.
Investing heavily in the Arab market, Cocamar should end 2010 with foreign sales of US$ 1.1 million, with retail products alone, a figure that, the cooperative hopes, may reach US$ 2.2 million next year.
"The Arabs are a priority for 2011," said the Product manager at Cocamar, Marco Roberto Alarcon. "There is great synergy between what they want and what we have to offer, and we are prepared to supply these markets," he said.
According to Alarcon, the first shipments of beverages should take place early next year, to Abu Dhabi and Dubai, probably before February. Negotiations are already progressing well in Oman. "Perspectives are very good, mainly for our tropical fruit juices," he said. Among the products most appreciated by the Arabs are flavours like mango and guaraná with assai.
Currently, among the main foreign markets for Cocamar are countries like Japan and China. The cooperative, a traditional exporter of products like concentrated orange juice, soy chaff and decaffeinated coffee, has been turning its efforts to greater sales of industrialized products since 2008, as is the case with juices.
In 2009, Cocamar, headquartered in Maringá, 435 kilometres away from Paraná state capital Curitiba, had revenues of 1.2 billion Brazilian reals (US$ 703 million), a figure that should reach 1.5 billion reals (US$ 880 million) in 2010 and 2 billion reals (US$ 1.2 billion) in 2011. The cooperative also produces goods like cotton, wheat, maize oil, mustard, alcohol and tomato pulp, among others.
Contact
Cocamar
Telephone: (+55 44) 3221-3000
Site: www.cocamar.com.br
*Translated by Mark Ament
