São Paulo –Agrícola Famosa, one of the leading melon producing companies in Brazil, is interested in establishing partnerships in the Arab market to export its fruit. The company’s melons and watermelons are already shipped to Morocco and Libya. Now, it is seeking a partnership with the International Agriculture and Food Investment Company (Agroinvest), based in Saudi Arabia.
Representatives of Agroinvest visited Brazil in October, on a business mission headed by the Saudi minister of Agriculture, Fahad Abdulrahman Bal Ghunaim. On the occasion, the minister pointed Brazil out as one of the target countries for investment in agriculture, so as to ensure Saudi food security.
According to Alexandre Junqueira Franco, of Agrícola Famosa’s Foreign Trade department, the company is at the disposal of enterprises from Saudi Arabia and other Arab countries that wish to visit its farms and production lines. Agrícola Famosa has 5,000 hectares in the states of Ceará and Rio Grande do Norte.
The company’s export flagship is melon, of seven different types, and secondly watermelon, of which it produces seeded and seedless varieties. Agrícola Famosa also produces bananas for export.
According to Franco, the enterprise produces 230 20-tonne containers per week, ranking from 120,000 to 140,000 tonnes per crop. Approximately 60% of production is shipped abroad, mostly to Europe. On the market for 15 years, Agrícola Famosa employs 4,000 people during the crop season.
Buying countries include the United Kingdom, Spain, the Netherlands, Germany, Portugal, Russia, Canada, the United States and South American nations. "In the crop season we get a lot of international visits. As we speak, we have a Spanish group over," said Franco.
Contact with importers, according to Franco, is usually made at international fairs, especially in Europe. Besides, the company usually advertises on domestic and foreign magazines.
On the domestic market, in addition to fruit, the Brazilian company produces fish, cattle, asparagus, tomato and eggplant.
Contact
Agrícola Famosa
Tel. +55 84 3324-5038
Email: contato@agrfamosa.com.br
Site: www.agricolafamosa.com.br
*Translated by Gabriel Pomerancblum
