Giuliana Napolitano
São Paulo – The visit Brazilian president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva made to the United Arab Emirates at the end of last year has started showing results. Apart from the business generated during the visit, local interest for Brazilian products has been rising. Up to March, for example, Brazilian companies will be participating in two events in the country: the first Gulf Beverage Exhibition and the twelfth edition of Dubai Festival.
Gulf Beverage will take place between March 21 and 24 at hotel Al Bustan Rotana, in Dubai, the same city that hosted the Brazilian Week & Trade Exhibition, the largest Brazilian business event ever to take place in the Arab world, which generated sales of around US$ 115 million for the next 12 months.
The fair will bring together drink companies from many countries, stated one of the project coordinators, Nádia Baker, to ANBA.
"It will be an international product exhibition, not just drinks, but also machinery and technology connected to this industry," explained Nádia, who is Brazilian and has been working at Isomatic, a company that organizes events in the United Arab Emirates since the end of 2003.
Up to now, a total of 70 companies have registered for participation in the event. Of these, 20 are international companies – there are participants from other Arab countries, such as Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Jordan, and Kuwait, and also from Romania, Malaysia and India, apart from one representative from Brazil. "It is a juice company," said Nádia, not stating the company name.
"The Arabs like Brazilian juice very much as there are a variety of different flavours, such as guava and passion-fruit," he declared. "We always try to bring different products, which are normally well accepted." The only restriction is to alcoholic drinks, which cannot participate in the fair as the Emirates are a Muslim country. It is expected that around 10,000 visitors should participate in the fair.
Nádia explains that she was put in charge of the fair because she is Brazilian. She explains: "Interest in Brazil is rising here, especially after the Brazilian Week in Dubai. The organizers wanted to bring Brazilian companies to the event. As I am Brazilian, it helps."
Retail
The same "preference" took place at the Dubai Festival, which began last Thursday (15) and ends on February 15. The event, which has been taking place for 12 years, brings together retail companies from around 30 countries. Isomatic was invited to participate in this edition of the event, as there was interest in attracting Brazilian companies. It is the first time that Brazil participates in the festival.
The purpose of the event, states Nádia, is to "show the culture and traditions of different places, so it may be possible to learn a little about them." "We also try to show that the Arab world is not just tragedies, because we cannot live in fear," she explains.
In the 2002 edition, around 2,000 companies from various sectors participated in the festival: from jewellery, cosmetics, and handcraft to vehicles and electronic equipment.
"It is also important to show Brazilians that the Arab world is not restricted to the conflict between Jews and Palestinians, that it has a developed economy, tourism, and infrastructure," stated the coordinator.
Nádia, who is a daughter of Palestinians and was born in Uruguaiana, in the southern state of Rio Grande do Sul, left Brazil last August to live with an aunt in the United Arab Emirates. As she speaks Arabic, she got a job and intends to stay in the country. "We will organize other events and want to increase Brazilian participation," she states.
One of these other events is in Human Resources Training. "We are, broadly speaking, organizing exchange between countries in the Arabian Gulf, but the plan is to bring Brazilians so that they can see how the Arabs work."
Contact
To get to know more about Gulf Beverage Exhibition and Dubai Festival, talk to Nádia on phone number (9714) 223-6727 or by e-mail isomatic@emirates.net.ae
