São Paulo – Marilan, a maker of biscuits headquartered in the city of Marília, in the interior of São Paulo, signed contracts with three Arab distributors for sale of products in Syria, Lebanon, Yemen and Palestine.
The contacts were the result of company participation in the Gulfood, in Dubai, the largest food sector fair in the Middle East, where Marilan exhibited in February.
The Lebanese should distribute the biscuits in Syria and also Lebanon. In Yemen and Palestine, in turn, the company signed contracts with individual suppliers.
Marilan has already delivered an order to the supplier from Lebanon and, according to Foreign Trade manager César Reis, the contract has good potential for company sales. "The potential is for US$ 500,000 a year, in this case, and the other markets (Yemen and Palestine) should follow this value,” he said.
Around 8% of Marilan production is turned to export. Of this total, between 15% and 20% goes to Arab nations. With the new contracts, Reis believes that this percentage may rise from 5% to 8%. He also pointed out that there are chances for greater growth.
"We made several contacts that have not yet resulted in business, but it is all a matter of time. At least one or two countries should be added as a result of the fair,” reveals the executive. Prior to the event, Marilan already did business with Egypt, Libya, Kuwait, Bahrain and Lebanon.
Another good example of how the company has truly decided to focus on the market in the Middle East and North Africa is the decision to produce biscuit packages in Arabic. “Currently, 50 products in our line already have labels in Arabic. Up to the end of 2010, all should have,” pointed out Reis.
The executive also confirmed Marilan participation in the next edition of Gulfood, to take place from February 27th to March 2nd, 2011.
Established in 1957, Marilan employs around 2,300 people. The industrial park occupies an area of almost 67,000 square meters and has capacity for production of 8,500 tonnes of biscuits a month.
Contact
Marilan
E-mail: sales@marilan.com
Site: www.marilan.com
*Translated by Mark Ament
