São Paulo – Representatives of the Libya-based Joint Stocks National Company are now in São Paulo seeking Brazilian exporters of wheat, soy and maize. Companies interested in selling to Libya may attend a business meeting at the Arab Brazilian Chamber of Commerce headquarters, in São Paulo, at 02:00 pm on Friday (3rd).
The Libyan company does not import from Brazil yet and is interested in buying directly from the Brazilian manufacturers. According to the quality manager at the Joint Stocks Company, Abdula Jalil Mohamed, the company imports mostly from European countries and from Argentina. "We buy from Brazil indirectly," claimed the manager.
According to him, the company has 21 plants spread throughout Libya for manufacturing flour, animal feed, pasta, couscous and semolina. Each year, the Joint Stocks Company imports 350,000 tonnes of soft wheat, 150,000 tonnes of maize and 50,000 tonnes of ground soy.
For the manufacturing of flour and semolina, the company has a production capacity of over 1,000 tonnes per day. It has seven plants for feed production and three for pasta. The Joint Stocks Company does not export and employs approximately 2,000 people.
This is the first time that representatives of the Libyan company come to Brazil seeking suppliers. The businessmen are in São Paulo alongside the Libyan ambassador to the Brazilian capital Brasília, Salem Ezubedi.
Last year, Brazil exported the equivalent of US$ 4.45 million in maize to Libya, representing growth of 41% over 2008. According to data supplied by the Foreign Trade Secretariat of the Brazilian Ministry of Development, Industry and Foreign Trade, the country did not export wheat or soy to Libya last year.
The Arab country imported the equivalent of US$237.7 million in wheat, US$ 110.2 million in maize and US$ 106 million in soy in 2008, according to data from the International Trade Centre (Intracen).
Contact
Arab Brazilian Chamber
Hans Lima
Tel. (+55 11) 3147-4067
Email: Hans@ccab.org.br
*Translated by Gabriel Pomerancblum
