São Paulo – Brazilian company Gomes da Costa should sell 100 tonnes of canned tuna and sardines to food distributing companies in Algeria. Negotiations regarding the sales started during Djazagro, an agriculture and food trade fair held in Algiers from April 12th to 145th.
“Sales are expected to begin in the second half of 2010,” said Dario Chemerinski, the company’s international trade director.
According to the executive, sales to the Arab countries represented 15% of exports by Grupo Calvo (the Spanish company that owns Gomes da Costa) in 2009. Considering only the Brazilian unit of Gomes da Costa, sales to the Arab market accounted for 11% of the company’s foreign sales last year.
Among Arab countries, Chemerinski highlights Libya as the main buyer of Gomes da Costa. “Tuna consumption in the country is approximately 5 kilograms per year per person. Libya has nearly 60 processed fish brands,” he said.
The company also exports to Morocco, Lebanon, Jordan, Syria, the United Arab Emirates and Oman. According to the executive, the company’s exports are growing as it breaks into new markets in new countries.
“The prospects are excellent due to the good acceptance of our products, both for tuna and sardines, aside from the fact that we have a full line in Arabic-English, with production of cans bearing all of the information printed in those languages,” said the trade director.
“With regard to Jordan, we signed a partnership agreement in January of this year, and have already shipped two orders in the last 60 days, and acceptance is great for our tuna and sardine fillet line. Syria and Iraq have already placed new orders, tuna being the highlight. As for the Emirates and Oman, we closed a deal with a local group and, together, we participated in Gulfood (the Middle East’s leading food industry fair). The first shipment is scheduled for the third week of May,” said Chemerinski.
According to the director, the company considers its participation in food industry fairs in the Arab countries to be “of utmost importance to the expansion of international trade.” “We get an the opportunity to expose ourselves to companies and distributors in the Arab region, and that leads to opportunities of signing partnership agreements with local companies, which place their bets with long-term vision. Furthermoer, we get to know the region’s fish industry up close.”
Gomes da Costa’s participation in Djazagro counted on support from the Arab Brazilian Chamber of Commerce, which organized a booth at the fair along with the Brazilian embassy in Algiers. “We intend to participate (in Djazagro) again in 2011 and 2012, until we have established our brand in the Algerian market,” claims Chemerinski.
According to him, the Calvo group wants to increase the share of Arab countries in its overall exports to 20% in 2010. “The goal this year is to ship 420 containers to the Middle East, at a cost of USS 50,000 each, totalling US$ 21 million in revenues from exports to the region in 2010, a figure that may represent roughly 12% of the company’s revenues,” he finished off.
*Translated by Gabriel Pomerancblum
