São Paulo – The United Arab Emirates will be one of the targets of Brazilian furniture exporters in 2010. The country is an important buyer market for furniture, according to the Brazilian Furniture project, developed in partnership by the Brazilian Furniture Industry Association (Abimóvel) and the Brazilian Export and Investment Promotion Agency (Apex).
According to José Luiz Dias, president of the Abimóvel, the Emirates were selected because it is a traditional buyer of furniture from Brazil, plus it hosts Index, the leading trade fair for the industry in the Middle East, and is also home to an Apex office.
According to João Araújo Pinto Neto, executive director of the Abimóvel and manager of the Brazilian Furniture project, annual exports of Brazilian furniture total roughly US$ 900 million, less than 1% of global sales by the industry, which has a turnover of approximately US$ 100 billion.
The United Arab Emirates ranks among the ten leading buyers of furniture from Brazil, and accounts for around 10% of the country’s furniture exports. The leading importer of Brazilian furniture is France, followed by the United States.
To increase exports to the Arab country, the project will follow two different lines of action. The first one is to continue participating every year in Index, the largest event for the industry that Brazil attends. “The fair in Dubai is one of a handful worldwide in which you can find all sorts of furniture, from the most sophisticated to the most popular,” says Neto. “It is the fair in which Brazilians sell the most and enjoy the most success,” he adds.
In the 2009 edition alone, the fair generated revenues of US$ 3 million to the Brazilian companies. Neto explains that the event in Dubai is important not only for Brazilian exports to the Emirates, but to the other Arab countries as well, in addition to eventual sales to Asian and European countries.
The other line of action is to have Arab buyers participate in business roundtables under a buyer project, which consists of bringing foreign importers to events in Brazil. A total of 12 projects of the kind will be implemented throughout the year.
*Translated by Gabriel Pomerancblum
