São Paulo – Saudi Arabia was chosen as one of the target markets for Brazilian pharmaceutical industry exports. The country is included in actions of the second part of the Integrated Sector Project (PSI), a partnership between the Brazilian Export and Investment Promotion Agency (Apex), the Association of Brazilian Pharmochemicals and Pharmaceutical Ingredients Producers (Abiquifi) and other sector organisations. Investment in trade promotion should exceed 4 million Brazilian reals (US$ 2.3 million) by the end of 2012.
“Saudi Arabia was chosen as one of the target markets as it is a great business centre for other Brazilian products, especially in the food sector,” said José Correia, the Abiquifi president. “Apart from that, the Brazilian affinity with the Saudis, built decades ago with oil imports, the large [Arab] community in Brazil and the great [Arab] presence in our customs, were other factors that caused the choice of Saudi Arabia as our starting point for development of the PSI,” he pointed out.
In 2010 and 2011, exports of pharmaceutical products of Brazil to the Arab country were small. Last year, they totalled US$ 1.6 million, and from January to September this year totalled US$ 1 million, according to Arab Brazilian Chamber of Commerce.
Correia pointed out that the second phase of the PSI, which has been under development since August this year and should end in December 2012, has been reformulated with regard to the previous agreements, which involved only the participation of national companies at CPhI Worldwide, the largest sector fair, in Frankfurt, Germany.
“This project should complete several actions, like commercial intelligence, market prospecting, international marketing, participation in international fairs, buyer, seller and image project, as well as company training,” he pointed out.
In Saudi Arabia, attention will be turned to commercial intelligence, with the collection of regulatory information, general figures, the main players, potential clients, distributors, tenders and tendencies.
“The main objective at this moment is to supply trustworthy and valuable information for companies to be able to qualify and structure themselves to operate in the Saudi market with greater safety, trustworthiness and chance of success,” said Correia.
Apart from the Arab country, the target markets selected are Spain, Angola, South Africa, Russia, Mexico, Colombia and Argentina. According to Abiquifi figures, total Brazilian sector exports in 2010 were US 1.7 billion. With the second phase of the PSI, it is expected that foreign sales should exceed US$ 2 billion by the end of 2011.
*Translated by Mark Ament
