São Paulo – The Moroccan market is interested in agricultural machinery made in Brazil to carry out its plans of increasing farming output. The demand for technology was made known during the Brazilian participation in the International Agriculture Show in Morocco (Siam), which opened last Tuesday (28th) and will continue until next Sunday (3rd). Several people visiting Brazil’s stand at the event have communicated their interest.
The Brazilian participation is organized by the Arab Brazilian Chamber of Commerce in partnership with the Brazilian Ministry of Foreign Relations and the Brazilian Beef Exporters Association (Abiec). “The agricultural sector has strong government incentive; there is a project in place to develop agriculture in the country,” says the Arab Chamber International Business executive Fernanda Baltazar, who is representing the organization at the show alongside the Business analyst Sidi Ahmid.
The Arab Chamber has taken promotional materials from its agriculture-related member companies to the event in Morocco, such as the machinery makers Marchesan, Ferraz and ADM, and food company Florestal. The items are being distributed to importers visiting the Brazilian stand, which also features a professional from Abiec.
Apart from technology, there is also a demand for foodstuffs at the show. One of the purposes of the Brazilian participation is to break into Morocco’s beef market, hence Abiec’s involvement. This month, the Arab country has changed the contents of the certification it requires in order to import beef from Brazil. In the past, exports were required to originate from inspected meat packers listed by Morocco, but not anymore, so the market is open to all potential suppliers. There still is, however, a 200% tax on the product.
Executives from the Arab Chamber and Abiec met with the Brazilian ambassador in Rabat, Frederico S. Duque Estrada Meyer, who believes that the Moroccan beef market is a promising one. The participation at Siama is one of the actions taken to start the development of the sector, to keep close contact with distributors and to try to solve the high taxes issue. “The Arab Chamber has noticed, for a while already, the interest of the Moroccan market in the Brazilian beef”, said Baltazar in an interview with ANBA by phone.
Siam is also presenting other demands and opportunities. According to the executive of the Arab Chamber, the stand was visited, for instance, by producers of argan oil interested in the Brazilian cosmetics market.
Morocco is Brazil’s third largest market among North African countries, behind only Egypt and Algeria. Last year, the country earned US$ 568.3 million in exports to Moroccans, according to data from the Ministry of Development, Industry and Foreign Trade (MDIC), complied by the Arab Chamber. The main products sold by the country were sugar, grains and agricultural machinery. The Arab country cultivates and produces olive trees, barley, wheat, citrus fruits, grapes, vegetables, olive and wine, among others.
*Translated by Gabriel Pomerancblum and Sérgio Kakitani
