Tripoli – Less than two days were spent in Tripoli, but it was enough for the Brazilian businessmen on a trade mission to North Africa to realise that Libya is a promising market. "For our sector, I believe that this is a future export market," said this Monday (26) the president of the Brazilian Honey Exporters Association (Abemel), Joelma Lambertucci de Brito. “There is a demand for honey and lots of imports from other countries, especially European,” she added.
Also new to the country, Ronan Moreira, of MGR, a granite manufacturing company based in Rio de Janeiro, stated that he made several contacts during the business roundtable organised at hotel Corinthia Bab Africa. He envisions the possibility of selling finished products to Libya, such as tiles and facings. “The event was well advertised,” he said.
Along the same lines, the trader at dairy company Tangará, Leonardo Bonaparte, claimed that the market is similar to Algeria’s in terms of consumption patterns, although smaller. Algeria is one of the leading foreign destinations for Brazilian powdered milk. The company mostly manufactures milk preparations for the food industry, and Bonaparte believes that the segment has good potential. “We want to consolidate North Africa as a whole,” he said.
For many years, Libya was a closed economy, especially due to embargos imposed. Starting in 2003, the country began to integrate itself with international economy again and, boosted by oil revenue, became a large importer of all types of products.
Those well acquainted with Libya say that doing business with the country has become much easier in recent years. Businessman Mohamed El Zwei, of company MCI Trading, is a Libyan-born, Brazilian-naturalised since 2007. Since 1994 he works with food exports solely to his country of origin.
“Nowadays it is much easier, in the past Brazil did not sell anything to Libya, it was very difficult,” he declared. He underscored that from 2007 to 2008 Brazilian sales to the Arab country grew 50%. “If it were not for the crisis, sales would have grown 100%, or 150%, things are only getting started. The train has started rolling,” he asserted.
For some, the train has already rolled. The trader at shoe manufacturing company Grendene, Artur Felipe Bonotto, said that during the visit he consolidated a deal outlined at last year’s edition of the Tripoli International Fair. “The deal practically closed, we are going to send a batch for the importer to analyse and then introduce our products in the next season,” he stated.
The company aims to sell flip-flop sandals of the Rider, Ipanema and Grenda lines. The main competitors are Chinese products, sold by the dozen in the popular markets. “We are seeking another a public on another level, one that wants quality,” said Bonotto.
There were also people who strengthened contacts that they already had. Such was the case with Paulo Hegg, of Tirolez, a cheese manufacturer company. The enterprise already has importers in the country and Hegg heard remarks stating that the brand is enjoying appreciation and recognition. Now he wants to bring all of his businesses together under a single distributor that supplies to all of Libya. “We are going to devise a commercial strategy for increasing exports,” he stated. Presently, Tirolez ships around 50 tonnes of cheese per month to the Libyan market.
That is also the case with Eduardo Moraes, of Latinex, a trading that operates in the food sector. He had his first contact with Libya in the 2007 Tripoli International Fair and had been selling biscuits to the country on a regular basis. After the appreciation of the real (Brazilian currency) against the dollar, which took place up until August last year, exports turned sporadic.
“Now, exchange rates are more favourable and I am also going to start exporting raw material for juice, which is a strong, steadily growing segment in Libya," he declared. “I hope to participate in the fair in Tripoli again this year, because they enjoy personal contact and we need to maintain a certain regularity,” he finished off.
Fostering
Also on Monday, the Brazilian minister of Development, Industry and Foreign Trade, Miguel Jorge, who heads the trade mission to North Africa, had meetings with the Libyan deputy prime minister, Mubarak Al-Shamikh, the minister of Industry and Mining, Ali Yousef Zikri, the president of the state-owned National Oil Company (NOC), Shokri Ghanem, as well as meetings at the ministries of Transport and Telecommunications, and of Foreign Relations.
The president of the Arab Brazilian Chamber of Commerce, Salim Schahin, who accompanied the visits, stated that Libyan authorities as a whole have shown great interest in fostering business with Brazil. “Libya wants to attract business, and the Libyan ministers say that Brazilian companies will be given preference,” he asserted.
The interest, according to him, applies to all sectors, especially construction, infrastructure and even energy, even though the country is a large oil producer. Libya wants to increase the use of gas in its energy matrix.
Schahin added that, during the talks, also mentioned was the possibility of creating a free zone in Libya for companies from Brazil, so that the country may be used as a base for exporting.
Another topic discussed at the meetings was facilitation in granting of visas to Brazilian businessmen, and the deputy prime minister wants to organise a trade mission to the country soon.
The delegation headed by the minister ended the visit to Libya on Monday afternoon and left to Algiers, the capital of Algeria, for the second leg of the trip.
*Translated by Gabriel Pomerancblum
