São Paulo – Exports from Brazil to the Arab market advanced 25.6% in January this year as against the same month last year, after facing some months of drops in late 2009. According to the Ministry of Development, Industry and Foreign Trade, compiled by the Market Development Department at the Arab Brazilian Chamber of Commerce, Brazilian sales to the region totalled US$ 545.6 million in January 2009, and reached US$ 685.17 million last month.
The secretary general at the Arab Brazilian Chamber, Michel Alaby, recalls that commodities were greatly responsible for this volume of sales. In fact, among the main products in the basket were sugar, meats, ores and grain. All, except grain, rose in January as against the same month in 2009. According to Alaby, the fact that January presented growth is a positive sign. “The tendency this year is for growth,” he said.
Alaby mentioned, among the factors that caused him to consider 2010 a good year for exports to the Arabs, the crop growth forecasted for Brazil, exchange rates, which are more favourable to exports, as well as several actions for promotion of Brazilian foreign trade. He recalls that the Arab Brazilian Chamber is going to organise national participation in a series of fairs and the government is going to promote delegations to the region. Among them is the visit by president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva that is forecasted to take place in June, to Palestine and Jordan.
According to the secretary general at the Chamber, these initiatives may help diversify the Brazilian trade basket to the Arab world, with the insertion of more industrialized food. In the growth that took place in January, the Gulf and the Levant were the regions that played the most important part. Exports to the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) grew 41.89% and to the Levant (Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon and Syria), the expansion was 11%, whereas sales to the Arab nations in North Africa dropped 12%.
The great Arab buyers of Brazilian products in January were Saudi Arabia, with imports of US$ 188.7 million and expansion of 27%, the United Arab Emirates, with US$ 88 million and growth of 47%, and Algeria, with US$ 63.44 million and growth of 60%. According to Alaby, the Arab market is heated mainly due to the stability of the price of oil and to the need for imports of foods.
In January, there was also growth in exports from the Arab countries to Brazil. They rose 49% over the first month in 2009 and totalled US$ 479 million. The vast majority corresponded to oil: US$ 442 million. Algeria and Iraq were the main suppliers, followed by Libya and Morocco.
*Translated by Mark Ament