São Paulo – Despite the unfavourable exchange, Brazilian producers of apples boosted their sales of the fruit to the Arab market from January to October this year. Shipments to the region totalled 5,900 tonnes in the year up to October, against 4,900 tonnes in the same period last year, with growth of 20%. The volume is low if compared to the total exported by Brazil – 92,000 tonnes -, and the Arabs buy just 6.5% of shipments. But the Arab market has been expanding purchases, while exports as a whole are dropping.
"Exports are important to the sector, and the idea is to export. We see the Arab market as strategic for pulverisation of our sales, which are basically concentrated on the European Union. But we prefer to seek alternatives to the loss in competitiveness we are having due to exchange rates," said the executive director at the Brazilian Association of Apple Producers (ABPM), Moisés Lopes de Albuquerque.
As exports mainly take place between February and July, due to the crop period in Brazil, the volume of foreign sales this year should be 92,000 tonnes, the total registered to date, according to Albuquerque. And this should represent reduction of 7.6% over 2009, when the country’s exports reached 99,000 tonnes of fresh apples. ABPM has developed several actions among producers and exporters to promote Brazilian apples abroad, but they dropped due to the appreciation of the Brazilian real.
In 2007, in fact, the sector promoted a trade delegation to the Middle East, including six countries, among them the Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Oman and Qatar. The objective, at the time, was to diversify exports. "One of the factors that motivated us was the great volume of apple imports by the Middle East, and our little participation," recalled the executive director. There are currently no sector initiatives for promotional missions in the region, or similar actions, but, according to Albuquerque, companies have been maintaining their individual efforts.
The value of Brazilian exports to the Arab world reached US$ 3.5 million from January to October, against US$ 2.48 million in the same months in 2009. The states that supplied most were Rio Grande do Sul and Santa Catarina, in that order. The Arab countries that purchased apples were, in this order, the United Arab Emirates, Libya, Oman, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Kuwait, Qatar, Algeria and Mauritania.
The Brazilian apple crop was 1.150 million tonnes this year, of which 800,000 tonnes were used for juice and fresh fruit, and the remains for industrial purposes. ABPM forecasts a lower production next year. Current production is focussed on the states of Rio Grande do Sul and Santa Catarina. Both answer to 94% of the crop.
Contact
ABPM
Telephone: (+55 49) 3246 2686
Site: http://www.brazilianappleexporters.com
Site: http://www.abpm.org.br
*Translated by Mark Ament
