São Paulo – The Middle East is one of the regions of the world in which orange juice consumption has been growing the most. This may help Brazil compensate the decline in imports by its leading consumer markets worldwide, namely the United States and Europe. The data were presented at the "Challenges in Brazilian Citriculture" seminar, promoted this Wednesday (20th) in São Paulo by the National Association of Citric Juice Exporters (CitrusBR) and by the Valor Econômico newspaper.
"Asia, the Middle East and Latin America are driving growth in orange juice consumption," said Alexandre Carvalho, marketing director of packaging company Tetra Pak, during his presentation. According to data shown by the executive, from 2003 to 2009, consumption of the beverage grew by 4.3% in the Middle East, 4.5% in Latin America and 7.9% in Asia.
In an interview to ANBA, Eduardo Eisler, the vice president of Business Strategy at Tetra Pak Brazil, stated that rising consumption in the Middle East is in line with the growth that took place in Latin America and other regions outside of Europe and North America. "It is a phenomenon in which emerging classes are coming up, the industry is developing fast and a type of agriculture has been developed that enables fruit to reach end consumers," he says.
According to the executive, people in those countries are getting into the habit of consuming fruit and juice. "They are strong importers because as income rises, they have a greater need, greater import demands and, as a result, the demand for Brazilian juice is on the rise," he claims.
To Eisler, there is a huge potential for Brazilian orange juice exports to increase not only to the Middle East, but to Africa as well. "I believe that it should help us make up for the delay that we have today. Countries such as Nigeria, Algeria, Morocco, South Africa, Senegal and Angola are markets to which exports should grow in the future. It is the next wave, as we call it," he said.
In 2009, the United States, the leading individual buyer of concentrated orange juice from Brazil, accounted for only 13% of foreign sales, a rate that reached 33% in the 1970s.
For the sake of illustration, from 2003 to 2009, consumption of Brazilian orange juice dropped by 6% in the country’s 40 leading target markets. After the United States, the ranking includes Germany, France, the United Kingdom and Canada, in that order.
To Marcos Fava Neves, the coordinator of the Agribusiness Programme at the University of São Paulo, which has conducted a comprehensive survey of the citriculture market in Brazil, in order to overcome the crisis in the industry, the country needs to develop new markets, among other things. The 2009-2010 orange juice crop was exported to only 70 countries.
Another point touched on at the event, with regard to exports, was the exchange rate. To the former Finance minister Delfim Netto, the rate is a crucial issue in order for foreign sales of orange juice to increase. "The inner struggle in the industry cannot be solved unless the interest rate is in the right place," he said.
In 2010, Brazilian citrus industry exports should reach US$ 2 billion, according to estimates. According to a study conducted by Neves, if the exchange rate was US$ 1 to 2.32 Brazilian real, the industry’s annual revenues would increase by 760 million reals (US$ 450 million). Presently, the exchange rate is around 1.70 real for US$ 1.
*Translated by Gabriel Pomerancblum
