São Paulo – VijiKantha Bendiah, head of commercial department at Malaysia’s retailer Giant, is a participant in the Halal do Brasil’s Buyer Project. He told ANBA on Monday (5) that made-in-Brazil food items have better prices and quality compared to those made in the United States and the European Union. “I’m amazed at how Brazil is an established exporter, because in Asia, we focus on the US, Mexico, Poland, and here you have similar products for more competitive prices,” he said.
Bendiah and seven other buyers from Muslim-majority countries were invited by the Halal do Brasil project to have B2B meetings with Brazilian firms from Monday (5) through Wednesday (7). From Thursday (8) to Saturday (10), they’ll be divided into groups to visit food and beverage companies in the states of Goiás, Minas Gerais, and Paraná.
The meetings between buyers and sellers are held in São Paulo in the headquarters of the Arab-Brazilian Chamber of Commerce (ABCC), which spearheads the project’s activities alongside the Brazilian Trade and Investment Promotion Agency (ApexBrasil).
Malaysian firm buys poultry from Brazil
Bendiah is the only representative of firm that isn’t Arab. The other guests of the Buyer Project are firms from Oman, Qatar, Lebanon, Jordan, United Arab Emirates, and Tunisia. The Halal do Brasil project promotes halal goods overseas, halal meaning fit for Muslim consumption. The Buyer Project seeks to present Muslim-friendly food items to potential Islamic customers
“When I first received emails from the ABCC [to join the project], I was amazed by the potential business with Brazil. I didn’t know about the country’s halal expertise. Halal isn’t just about target audience but rather [food] safety,” said Bendiah. He added that he was astonished with the quality of the products he found, including olive oil, cookies and biscuits, and others. The firm belongs to a holding company that has 94 stores across Malaysia and 2,6000 employees. It already imports halal chicken from Brazil, said the executive, who now sees opportunities for more products.
Read more:
Malaysia: 1.9 billion halal consumers
Translated by Guilherme Miranda
