Dubai – The flow of visitors at the 2022 edition of Gulfood has been positive until this Monday (14), the second day of the largest food event in the Middle East, held in Dubai. African executives are among the primary contacts sought by Brazilian companies at the Arab Brazilian Chamber of Commerce (ABCC) booth. This is the case of Golden Agri Resources (GAR), which has sugar as its flagship product at Gulfood, and its main target markets are on the African continent.
For the brand’s executive, Felipe Ferraz, Gulfood is one of the best shows for making these contacts. “Our biggest focus here is Africa, followed by the Middle East. The African continent, by the way, is the biggest destination for Brazilian sugar. So we had here some of the biggest buyers from countries like Burkina Faso, Niger, Benin, Gambia, and Mali,” he exemplified. Ferraz now hopes to find more clients and prospect new partners in the following days of the show.
Dinda also has an eye on African countries. The company is focused on developing markets and sees Gulfood as a promising moment to find its partners and open new businesses. “We are prospecting for Egypt,” recalled Marcelo Turri, the company’s export director. Today, the brand’s main markets are Africa and Latin America.
The company came to display newly reformulated products that received new models and packaging sizes, such as margarine and canned corned beef. “We have created more cost-efficient formulas to meet the reality of our markets,” explained Turri.
Nutrire, a brand focused on dog and cat food, has participated in Gulfood since 2017. “The show is not specific to pets, but that is why we find food importers in general, and they see it as something interesting, an additional item for their portfolio,” explained Giane Danielli, Nutrire’s export manager.
The brand also sees the event as an opportunity to contact partners on the African continent. “This is a prospecting opportunity not just for the Gulf, but the entire world. We are interested in Africa and the Caribbean, which are more difficult markets for finding specific distributors. We made contacts here we would not be able to make in pet shows,” she said.
The company from the state of Rio Grande do Sul already exports to several countries in the Middle East, including the UAE and Saudi Arabia. The four pet food lines are sold in supermarkets, pet shops, and veterinary clinics. “Worldwide, the pet sector really grows a lot, and here [in the region], it is no different. Especially in the Gulf countries, we sell much more to cats,” recalled Danielli.
A traditional participant in Gulfood, O Primo Logística, noticed the increase in visitors in this year’s edition. “Last year’s show was important for other events in the world to see they could resume, but this edition is bustling. Many people are interested in doing business,” said Marcio Fiori, commercial manager of the brand.
The company has a wide range of products to enter countries worldwide, but now it plans to close the ‘door to door’ cycle. “We always do air, sea, or road transport, but today we usually only do a single one of them with the customer. And the intention now is to aggregate the entire chain. From pickup at the producer’s factory in Brazil, at the port or airport, to delivery at the importer’s door,” Fiori explained. The idea is to use the company’s network of partners worldwide to make this complete delivery.
In addition to the companies exhibiting at the ABCC booth, members of the Brazilian institution visit the show in Dubai. This is the case of the CEO of JCF Embalagens, Josiel Feliciano. The company offers several types of packaging, and the executive said the show brings many innovations in the sector. He mentioned being satisfied with the contacts made and will take products he discovered at Gulfood to Brazil.
For the secretary-general of the ABCC, Tamer Mansour, the expectation is companies from increasingly varied sectors will make effective use of the show. “I can see, from the number of participating companies, we will undoubtedly be successful in sales of value-added products. We work for all Brazilian companies here, and we are assisting with all of them and providing advice to our Arab members. I have been participating in Gulfood for over 20 years, and today I can see there are many new people and businesses are booming. I have a solid expectation a lot of business will be done, maybe even a record,” stated Mansour.
Quick facts:
Gulfood 2022
February 13 to 17, 2022
WTC, Dubai, United Arab Emirates
More info: https://www.gulfood.com/
Translated by Elúsio Brasileiro
