Marina Sarruf*
marina.sarruf@anba.com.br
São Paulo – The organizers of the 25ª International Trade Show for the Furniture Industry (Fenavem) want to attract Arab importers to business roundtables at the Brazilian Furniture Buyer Project, a Brazilian export incentive program organized by the Brazilian Export and Investment Promotion Agency (Apex) and the Brazilian Furniture Industry Association (Abimóvel). The event, to take place between August 06 and 10, in São Paulo, hopes to attract 20 importers from five continents.
According to Rafael Molon, who is in charge of the Buyer Project, around 70 Brazilian companies are going to participate in the Business roundtables and most are greatly interested in the Arab market. "We did a research of all the Brazilian companies that are going to participate in the project and the market that attracted the greatest interest was the Middle Eastern. Most of the companies stated their interest in selling to the Arab countries," he said.
“We want at least one quarter of the foreign buyers to be from the Middle East. The Arabs have a great potential in the sector," added Molon. According to him, importers from Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia have already shown interest in participating in the roundtables.
Companies interested in the event should send an e-mail to the address below. The organizations will be selected by the Abimóvel and their representatives will have their tickets and accommodation covered.
The Brazilian Furniture Buyer Project generated a turnover of US$ 13 million between August 2005, when it started, and December 2006. The business roundtables for this edition of the fair should take place on the 06th and 07th and around 500 meetings will be scheduled.
From January to April this year, Brazilian sector exports totalled US$ 293.53 million, representing an increase of 6.4% over the same period last year, when the sales totalled US$ 275.88 million, according to figures supplied by the Abimóvel.
Fair
Fenavem, which is the largest furniture sector fair in Latin America, takes place every two years. In its last edition, in 2005, the event generated a turnover of US$ 10 million in exports to 14 countries present in the roundtables. The fair received over 50,000 visitors, being 2,500 foreign buyers. In total, 350 exhibitors participated. For this year, 85% of the fair space is already complete.
Contact
Buyer Project
E-mail: comprador@abimovel.com
Site: www.abimovel.com/project
*Translated by Mark Ament
