São Paulo – Brazilian company Plastifluor, one of the leading manufacturers of thread seal tape in the country, is taking part in the Big 5 Show trade fair, for the building industry, to be held from the 22nd to the 26th in Dubai, in the United Arab Emirates. Before travelling, the director of the company, Marcelo Santucci, wanted to attend the workshop “Get to Know the Arab Market,” promoted last Thursday (5th) in the city of São Paulo, at the Arab Brazilian Chamber of Commerce headquarters.
“After watching the presentations, I realized that there is a very strong synergy between Brazilians and Arabs and that they appreciate quality products. I was very enthused,” said Santucci, who does not export to the market yet. According to him, the invitation to go to the fair came from the Non-Ferrous Metal Artefact Union of the State of São Paulo (Siamfesp).
At the Big 5 Show, the company is going to showcase thread seal tape, flexible Teflon pipes, industrial hoses and non-toxic lubricating grease for machinery and equipment. According to Santucci, the company, which was founded in 2005 in the city of Guarulhos, in the Greater São Paulo region, produces roughly 20 million rolls of thread seal tape per year.
"We have idle capacity and we are investing heavily in production capacity," said the director, who believes that he can supply the Arab market with a quality product for a competitive price. With 40 employees, Plastifluor already exports to South America and is now starting to seek new markets abroad.
Another company that attended the Arab Brazilian Chamber workshop was Serlac Trading, which specializes in dairy products. Trader Luiz Mizutani stated that the Arab countries are among the company’s main export targets. "I came to learn what is new and pick up information," said Mizutani. According to him, the Arab countries that import the most milk powder, condensed milk, and evaporated milk from Serlac are Algeria, Tunisia, Mauritania, Morocco and Sudan.
This edition of the workshop was attended by several trading companies, small and medium enterprises in various sectors, such as foods, clothing, building material, commodities and marketing. Businesswoman Fernanda Pasquale, of the Markets Abroad company, which provides marketing consultancy services to domestic and foreign companies, has recently put a Website together, and the leading foreign visitors are from Arab countries. "There are companies that want help to shop for funds in Brazil, and others want to provide assistance at fairs and do translation work," said Fernanda. According to her, the objective of the company is precisely to bridge the gap between Brazilian and foreign businessmen.
The topics approached during the workshop by the Market Development manager of the Arab Brazilian Chamber, Rodrigo Solano, and by the Foreign Trade coordinator of the organization, Francisca Barros, included professional training for companies to export, and familiarity with the culture and market of the Arab countries. According to Solano, marketing is essential for Brazilian products in the Arab world. "Brazil has become one of the stars worldwide and we need to take advantage of this climate in order to show that the country has a diversity of products," he said.
On the other hand, Francisca warned the businessmen of the importance of companies registering their brands in Arab countries before they start to export. "Many companies are having problems with that lately," she said.
*Translated by Gabriel Pomerancblum
