São Paulo – A mission of Palestinian businesspeople in Brazil aims to make trade and tourism business between the two countries more direct. The group started its activities in São Paulo this Monday (15), with a meeting at the headquarters of the Arab Brazilian Chamber of Commerce (ABCC), and will stay until Friday (19), concurrently with the period of the APAS supermarket Show, which the delegation will visit.
Palestine trades with Brazil, but most of the flow passes through Israel. The same happens in tourism. Palestine receives Brazilian visitors, but many people go to the region through Israeli travel agencies, which do not favor using Palestinian tourist structures such as hotels. The lack of a direct sea route also hampers logistics.
Regarding this reality and the desire to build a trade flow without intermediaries in the Brazil-Palestine relations, the businesspeople spoke with the secretary-general & CEO of the ABCC, Tamer Mansour, and other organization executives this Friday morning. The Palestinian mission to Brazil is promoted by the Palestinian Businessmen Forum, whose president, Amer Osaily (opening picture), leads the delegation in São Paulo.
According to Osaily, the goal is to expand business with Brazil in six sectors in which the entity he presides operates; industry, commerce, construction, services, agriculture, and medical. The institution also has sound connections with the education sector and works on tourism to establish a direct flow of Brazilian visitors. “We have the capacity and infrastructure for that,” said Osaily to ANBA.
Osaily believes participation in APAS could be a good opportunity for B2B meetings and more direct trade. The Palestinians are interested in exporting and importing from Brazil, in the latter case, from raw inputs to ready-to-eat products. Osaily mentioned products Palestine sells to the Brazilian market, such as stones, dates, vegetables, flowers, olive oil, etc. “We have many products. We could export them directly to Brazil,” he said.
The businessman believes the Mercosur-Palestine free trade agreement could help boost business. It was signed in 2011 by the Brazilian National Congress but is still pending in Argentina, Paraguay, Uruguay, and Palestine. With Palestine’s signature of the agreement, however, it could already be applied to Brazil. “We are talking about a waiver of tariffs, which could benefit the consumer,” says Osaily.
At the ABCC meeting, the delegation leader mentioned the encouragement given by ambassador Alessandro Candeas, head of the Brazilian Representation Office in Ramallah, and by the Palestinian ambassador in Brasília, Ibrahim Alzeben, to the development of Brazil-Palestine ties. The group had a meeting with Candeas in Palestine before the trip.
Palestinian companies
Eleven companies make up the Palestinian delegation in Brazil. They work with products and sectors such as energy drinks, uniforms, housewares, construction, and machinery, among others. Amer Osaily’s goal is to have a pavilion dedicated to his country, Palestine, in the next edition of APAS.
The meeting had the presence of Palestinian delegation members Mohsen Sharawi, CEO of Sharawi Investment & Trade; Sufyan Sami, manager of Palestine Poultry Co. (Aziza) Southern Branch; Ali Darwish, Business manager of De-Brasil; Mamoun Manasra, financial director of Palestinian Arab Federation of Brazil (FEPAL); and entrepreneur Nadeem Abu Sirrieh.
Arab Brazilian Chamber
As well as Mansour, other ABCC executives, including New Business director Guilherme Fedozzi, International Business analyst Leonardo Machado, and Market Intelligence manager Marcus Vinícius, attended the event. They spoke to Palestinians about the Brazilian food market and the peculiarities of negotiating with Brazilians.
Translated by Elúsio Brasileiro
