São Paulo – The executive secretary of Brazil’s Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Supply (MAPA), Eumar Novacki (picture), has a scheduled trip to two Arab countries in the beginning of September. He will visit Algeria and Egypt, according to the ministry’s press office.
In both countries, the aim is to increase the market share of Brazilian agricultural products. The official schedule for the trip hasn’t been decided yet, but the executive secretary should travel to Algeria and Egypt after attending a trade expo in Turkey, the non-Arab Middle East country.
Both Egypt and Algeria have strong trade relations with Brazil and are important markets for the products of the Brazilian agribusiness sector. Among the Arabs, Algeria is Brazil’s second largest trading partner, with Egypt coming in third.
From January to May of this year, Brazil exported USD 432.2 million worth of goods to Algeria and imported USD 678 million. Sales included mainly sugar, maize, beef, soy oil and peanuts, all agribusiness products.
But Brazil imports mainly fuels from Algeria, thus the trade balance favors the Algerians. From the USD 678 million in Algerian goods imported from January to May, USD 638 million were of fuels. The second major product in the trading list is fertilizers, also an agricultural product, with USD 36.8 million.
Regarding Egypt, the trade balance favors Brazil. In the year’s first five months, Egyptians bought USD 835 million worth of Brazilian goods, and exported USD 64 million to Brazil. The top products exported by Brazil to Egyptians were ore, beef, sugar, pipes and maize.
In turn, Egypt sold to the Brazilian market, from January to May, fertilizers, vegetable preparations, vegetables, cotton and food preparations. The data is from the Ministry of Industry, Foreign Trade and Services (MDIC) and was compiled by the Arab Brazilian Chamber of Commerce. The Arab Chamber will support and should be a part of the Ministry of Agriculture trade mission to Algeria and Egypt.
Translated by Sérgio Kakitani
