São Paulo – The Brazilian glass product industry has chosen two Arab countries as targets for its international promotion plan in the next two years. Egypt and Saudi Arabia, along with seven other nations, will be targeted as consumer markets in promotion project Glass Brazil, which industry union Sindividro is developing with the Brazilian Export and Investment Promotion Agency (Apex). The two organizations signed a partnership renewal contract, valid from July this year to July 2014, this week in São Paulo.
The other targets apart from Saudi and Egypt are Angola, Costa Rica, Mexico, United States, Colombia, India and Ukraine. Actions to promote the Brazilian glass industry will take place in these countries. Egyptians and Saudis will be invited to participate in two buyer projects, consisting of meetings between importers and Brazilian manufacturing companies, in May 2013 and 2014.
Glass Brazil manager Aristides Silva explains that 12 factors are considered when selecting the target markets, such as growth of civil construction, growth of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and economic stability. Saudi Arabia, he explains, is a regional hub. In past years, other Arab countries such as the United Arab Emirates have been targeted. Countries such as Kuwait and even Egypt and Saudi, when they were not targets, have taken part in buyer projects in the past.
Glass Brazil was implemented by Sindividro and Apex in 2004, and has originated US$ 330 million in exports since. According to Silva, South America, especially Argentina, is the main target market for the participating companies. Ever since, 50 actions have taken place in Brazil and abroad, including participation in fairs, missions, buyer projects and others. At present, ten companies are involved in Glass Brazil, and another ten are at a training stage, according to the manager.
The objective is to promote domestic and foreign sales of products such as household glass items, glass items for decoration, crystal items, and glass containers for the cosmetics, pharmaceutics, and food industries. Companies such as Nadir Figueiredo and Oxford Porcelanas are affiliated with the Glass Brazil project.
*Translated by Gabriel Pomerancblum
