Geovana Pagel*
São Paulo – Exports of Madeireira Uliana to Qatar and the United Arab Emirates grew 30% in one year. The company, in the city of Tietê, in the interior of the southeastern Brazilian state of São Paulo, has been selling solid wood doors to the region since early 2005. Both of the Arab countries are already responsible for 5% of the company’s foreign sales. Sales to the Middle East are through distributors and local representatives. Apart from doors, Uliana also exports door posts and facing.
“The Arab countries are used to purchasing products from Europe and demand great quality. This makes us work even harder to supply them,” pointed out Arnaldo Uliana, who is responsible for exports to the Middle East. “I visited Dubai in June, went to various construction companies and was able to identify a very large market for Brazilian doors, mainly solid wood doors. Noble wood is greatly appreciated,” she pointed out.
According to Uliana, one of the great company differentials for winning the Arab buyers was, apart from the exotic beauty of the Brazilian raw material, the technology employed in the drying of the wood. The company equipment is controlled by a system that maintains a specific level of humidity, stipulated according to the climate conditions of the region where the product will be sent.
“To export to the Middle East, where the temperature may exceed 50 degrees and the relative humidity is very low and also to guarantee that the product does not present problems, there cannot be faults in the drying process,” pointed out Arnaldo.
Foreign market
Uliana started exporting in 1994 and to manage to win very demanding customers had to prove that the organization was capable of offering, apart from the exotic beauty of Brazilian wood, quality and punctuality in delivery. “To manage to satisfy the American, European and Mercosur buyers, it is necessary to offer even more sizes, models and different tones of wood which are already common in the region,” explained Arnaldo.
Nowadays, 90% of production is exported. Among the main destination markets are the Mercosur, the United States and countries in Europe like Italy and Spain, as well as, more recently, the Middle East. The remaining 10% correspond to consumption in the Brazilian market.
About Uliana
The company was established in 1930, as a small saw mill in the city of Jumirim, in the interior of São Paulo. In 1947, the organization was moved to the city of Tietê. It grew, won new clients in Brazil and abroad and now counts on and industrial plant that covers 38,000 square metres and produces 12,000 doors per month, alongside other products. Uliana employs 180 people directly and another 220 people indirectly who works in the outsourced assembly and painting line.
The saw mill was the first Brazilian company to get the FSC Green Stamp. Uliana trades wood according to all the terms established in the environmental policy stipulated by the Brazilian Environment and Renewable Natural Resource Institute (Ibama), and invests in pioneer initiatives to stimulate the rational use of environmental reserves.
One of them was establishing group “Buyers of Certified Forestry Products” in Brazil, the third largest group in the world, according to international network “Global Forest Trade And Network”. Apart from the Brazilian, there are another 13 groups of this kind, most in developed countries.
Contact
Site: www.mad-uliana.com.br
Telephone: (+55 15) 3285.8100
*Translated by Mark Ament
