Dubai – In the last day of the food and beverage show in Dubai, Gulfood, Brazilian companies showed positive results. Despite coronavirus, which caused several visitors from across the world, especially China, to not attend the event, the businesspeople reported that connections were more qualified and business prospection remained high.
Golden Agri-Resources (GAR) executive Felipe Ferraz made more than 300 connections throughout the five-day show. “I believe that, with the coronavirus, less onlookers came, so you waste less time with them and strike deals,” the trader said. He sold sugar from Thailand to Ruanda. From Brazil, he’s negotiating sugar exports to West Africa and met new and recurrent clients. Pictured above, Ferraz with his networking pad in the Arab Chamber stand.
O Primo Logística sales executive Andreas Merz believes the show was fruitful not just to meet clients his company already works with but to develop new deals. “It was surprising. We got new clients and around 30% of the deals we closed in the show were with Middle East-based companies, to transport sweets, candies and coffee,” Merz said.
According to him, the company came to Gulfood mostly to assess business between Brazil and Arabs but struck deals with other countries, too. “We signed with suppliers from Egypt to export pasta to Sub-Saharan Africa,” he said. “We had less prospection and more people willing to close deals,” he finished.
Marcelo Turri, exports director at Dinda, a basic food basket company, said that he made 63 connections during the show. “Some we already knew, and we also had new clients. I believe it was quite positive, but getting a business card and networking is just 20% of the work, so now we’ll follow up to generate business in at least 90 days,” he said. Dinda is a company of the Cotia Atlas group. Turri says it’s already a strong brand in the African market, therefore it saw a larger demand than the healthy product line that Cotia Atlas brought to the Arab Chamber stand. “But closed our first sale of healthy products to the UAE, he said.
NP Zanchetta Cerealista managing partner Caique Zanchetta said that he struck a deal with a new client from Palestine for 300 tonnes of peanuts and increased the volume exported to other clients he has worked before. “We made connections with several countries, such as Australia, Ukraine, Jordan, Spain, Portugal and Italy. Many came from Algeria and Russia to strike deals, and many competitors from India and Sudan passed by to share prices,” he said. According to him, the show was great, despite having less visitors from Europe and China. “They didn’t come because of the coronavirus. This was supposed to be packed with Chinese, but other countries came and yielded good deals. The show was great, and we’ll come back next year,” he said.
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Businesswoman Julia de Biase at Royal Queen Açaí, a new brand of açaí and date mix launched at Gulfood, made her first sales to Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and Australia and is negotiating with India. “We also have two meetings here in the UAE with a restaurant chain of organic halal food with açaí-based dishes,” she said. According to Julia, the show was better than expected. “Everyone that passed by were surprised and interested. In fact, date companies from other countries such as Iran, Egypt, Iraq, and Saudi Arabia wanted to know if they could produce their own açaí and date mix, and yes, they can, we just have to assess the quality,” Julia said. She considers producing new açaí and date mix flavors, with strawberries, vanilla, and tropical fruits.
Adalberto Martins at Aqua Amazon really enjoyed the event’s outcomes. “It was our first time participating, and we certainly want to come next year again. We struck and prospected deals with almost every Arab country and, starting from Dubai and the UAE, we’ll reach other countries due to the connections we made in Gulfood,” he reported. He said that the most interested countries were Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, India, Egypt, some European countries, and mostly the UAE.
Bernardo Sele, a salesman at Agrícola Ferrari, which exports popcorn and sesame, said that the Arab Chamber stand yielded deals. “We are at the corridor and had a large flow of visitors. We sold 15 containers of black sesame to Taiwan and India. We also got good prospections with Peru and China, which has sent less people this year,” he said.
Açaí Amazonas foreign business director João Cláudio Gil said that Gulfood acted as a gateway for both the Arab world and other countries in the region. “Over 100 companies were contacted, including distributors, manufacturers and importers. We even got the chance to strike a deal with a Saudi Arabian distributor and received an order from India,” he said. The director said that several Dubai-based companies were interested in distributing their products both in the the manufacturing sector and food service channels.
Key Trade and IBG Trade partner Davi Sierra attended the show and made over 100 connections. “This year was better than the last because we are more established here now. We have prospects with Turkey, Jordan, Kuwait and India and signed good partnerships with Brazilian cookies, seasoning and sugar companies to represent them here,” he said. “It was very positive. Let’s see if we can participate in the Arab Chamber stand next year,” he said.
Arab Chamber secretary-general Tamer Mansour also considered the event good. “Despite all the complications the show went through due to the fear of coronavirus, with some companies choosing not to come, the show was great, and we had some pleasant surprises,” Mansour said.
He noticed a larger concentration of Arab businesspeople and less Chinese and Thai. “I was very glad that our members struck deals and partnerships. Gulfood was very good both as a trade show and a business meeting place, and it was great to meet our Arab partners, resume conversations, invite them to come to the Brazil & Arab Countries Economic Forum [to be held in April] and other activities of the Chamber,” he said.
Apex-Brasil
The head of Apex-Brasil office in Dubai, Karen Jones, also considered the event’s audience great. “It was lower in numbers but higher in the quality of meetings. Onlookers didn’t come, and the attendees were more focused in business, the businesspeople that see this as a strategic event they couldn’t give up,” she said. Jones said she expected the coronavirus impact would be great. “But Dubai business shows have become strategic for several industries besides food, such as the healthcare industry,” she said.
Sabor das Índias company came to Gulfood for the first time with a stand at Apex-Brasil World Food pavilion. “The products were very well accepted. We had several business prospections and had meetings to negotiate price, quantity and the adaptation of products to sell here in the UAE. They came eager to buy. They really liked our products based on biquinho pepper, such as antipasti and pâtés. Visitors from India were also interested in the bittersweet line,” said Gustavo Aquino, CEO at the company of sauces and jams with very Brazilian flavors.
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Minas Gerais-based company Bee Products came to Gulfood with Apex-Brasil to launch its açaí and propolis and honey mix in the Arab market. The açaí brand is a year and a half old and offers the product only in the foreign market in sugar-free powder and liquid powder, dye-free, natural, and sweetened with honey for both food service and the final consumer.
The company’s president Nívia Alcici said that she has good prospects with the show. “It was better than I expected. The people’s approach was very professional; we didn’t see many people just visiting. Our product stands out for being supernatural and sweetened with honey and is very healthy,” she said. According to Alcici, very promising connections were made, especially with the UAE, Kuwait, Oman, Bahrain, Egypt and Lebanon, as well as European countries. The company exports to Japan, Spain, England, Malaysia, Australia and Kuwait.
B.You Açaí director Mauricio Matos said that the show’s prospect were better this year because the company now has a retail distributor working on the UAE market. “We managed to close a deal with a local distributor specialized in frozen products to serve a whole hotel, restaurant and café chain, and our main mission in the show was finding distributors to other countries in the Gulf region and North Africa, where we had a very good demand, and we are talking with several companies,” he said.
He believes that the market will expand. “We managed to have a better filter and be more assertive this time. We’re very optimist. Depending on how things will progress from now on, we consider opening a subsidiary here in the Free Zone, as we did in Europe last year, which is being quite successful. We firmly believe in that to better serve the other countries in the region,” he said.
Translated by Guilherme Miranda
