São Paulo – An export fostering action the Halal do Brasil project will carry out next week will engage an array of Brazilian states, focusing on the regional diversity of the Latin American giant as guided by the Arab-Brazilian Chamber of Commerce (ABCC) and the Brazilian Trade and Investment Promotion Agency (ApexBrasil), which spearhead the initiative.
The Halal do Brasil hosts from August 5 to 10 a buyer project, bringing 12 importers from 10 Arab and Asian nations to the South American country to negotiate with Brazilian value-added food suppliers. Seminars and B2Bs will take place over the first three days in São Paulo, and there’ll also be appointments in Paraná, Goiás, and Minas Gerais for the importers to know their local potentialities.
Regional diversity will pervade the schedule. The B2Bs in São Paulo will feature 44 companies from 11 Brazilian states plus the Federal District. The states with the highest number of registrants – Paraná, Goiás, and Minas Gerais – will have an exhibition space at the B2B opening, as well as Rio Grande do Sul, due to the economic recovery it has demanded in the aftermath of the climate tragedy.
The following days, on August 8 and 9, the importers participating will be divided into three groups to visit Paraná, Goiás, and Minas Gerais, ending at a joint appointment on August 10 at border city Foz do Iguaçu. The buyers are supposed to get to know the infrastructure, economy, development, competitiveness, and international ties of the states they negotiate with. State-related actions will be conducted in partnership with local government and private sector agencies.
“We’ve noticed that foreign businesspeople are somewhat shortsighted when they look at Brazil,” says ABCC institutional relations director Fernanda Baltazar, adding that their sight is more restricted to São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, and Brasília, where most finished goods exporters are concentrated, and that it’s necessary to show them the rich diversity of the goods they buy or could buy and where the raw materials are from in Brazil. “We want them to understand the complexity of Brazil, a continental country,” says Baltazar.
Importers
The buyer project features importers form the United Arab Emirates, Lebanon, Malaysia, Tunisia, Oman, Kuwait, Egypt, Qatar, Jordan, and Saudi Arabia. Brazilian companies that registered to the B2Bs are from Paraná, Goiás, Mato Grosso do Sul, São Paulo, Ceará, Mato Grosso, Rio Grande do Sul, Minas Gerais, Rio de Janeiro, Santa Catarina, Pará, and Distrito Federal.
In addition to present the Brazilian regional diversity, another focus of the buyer project is the women’s participation, which is also a strategy of both the ABCC and ApexBrasil. Female importers will be present, and the seminar opening the appointments on August 5 is the leading role played by women in international corporate and business decision-making.
Halal do Brasil project
The Halal do Brasil project focuses on boosting the presence of Brazilian value-added food supplying companies in Muslim-majority markets. Halal means fit for Muslim consumption. Launched in 2022 and set to go on for three years, the project encompasses awareness-raising, training, certification, and trade promotion activities.
Read more:
Registration open for halal market course
Report by Rebecca Vettore, in collaboration with ANBA
Translated by Guilherme Miranda
