Marina Sarruf, special envoy*
Dubai – The 45 Brazilian companies that participated in Index, the largest furniture and decoration fair in the Middle East, made contacts that may generate US$ 11.3 million in business over the next 12 months. During the event, around 80 orders were closed for approximately US$ 3 million. "The companies are very satisfied with the result, so much so that the business forecast for the next 12 months is almost four times greater than that generated at the fair,” stated the vice president at the Brazilian Furniture Industry Association (Abimóvel), José Luiz Fernandez.
The fair, which ended on Saturday (11), received over 40,000 visitors, mainly from the Gulf. "The Arab market is very promising for Brazilian companies. Many constructions are in progress in the region, which demands a large volume of furniture,” stated Fernandez. According to him, sympathy with Brazilians helps in the negotiations, but it is still necessary to work hard on the matters of quality, design and preparation of businessmen to win the Arab market.
What attracted the greatest attention of Arab buyers was the differential of the Brazilian products, like, for example, the aluminium decoration objects by Sarquis Samara, who closed 50 orders at the fair and sold all of his samples on the first day of the fair. “I was greatly surprised at how the Arabs accepted my products. The people who visited the stand said they did not think they could find this kind of product in Brazil,” he said.
The success of the decoration items was such that various importers from the Arab countries demonstrated interest in opening exclusive stores with Brazilian products. "Now we are going to study possibilities,” stated Samara, who sold to Egypt, Oman, the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Qatar, Lebanon, Russia, Italy, Germany and Romania.
Other products that were well accepted by the Arabs were transparent and coloured crystal decorations made by Cristais Di Murano, which not only sold all the samples shown at the fair in the first days of the fair, but also closed an order to export around 200 articles to Kuwait.
For bedroom furniture producer Movelar, in turn, the contracts made helped open three new markets in the Arab countries: Jordan, Kuwait and Djibouti. The organization also renewed a contract with a distributor in Dubai and closed orders to ship five containers of products, with 190 sets of beds, bedside tables, dressers and wardrobes.
Apart from the Arab nations, the Brazilian companies also sold to other countries, like Nigeria and Uganda. Divicar, a maker of furniture for children’s bedrooms, is going to ship 120 items to importers in African countries and also in Palestine. "This year the fair was better than last year. We made 65 contacts, being six very promising,” stated the commercial director at the company, Carlos Carvalho.
Another producer that left Index satisfied was BRV Móveis, from the southernmost Brazilian state of Rio Grande do Sul. The company is going to ship around 700 items, among them racks, bookshelves and centre tables to Dubai and Ghana. "I intend to return next year and to bring our line of high-end products, as I felt they pleased the Arabs,” stated the company export manager, Leandra Piccin.
Record number of exhibitors
Index, which counted on the participation of 1,650 exhibitors from 57 countries, had a record number of participating companies and total area, which reached 35,380 square metres.
*Translated by Mark Ament
