Isaura Daniel*
isaura.daniel@anba.com.br
São Paulo – Company Café Canecão, a coffee manufacturer from the southeastern Brazilian state of São Paulo, started yesterday (22) to negotiate exports of the commodity to trading companies from Saudi Arabia. The company already sells its product to the Arab country, but it established contacts for new sales at business roundtables at the Arab Brazilian Chamber of Commerce, in the city of São Paulo. The organisation hosted, on Monday and yesterday, business roundtables between Brazilian businessmen and 16 Saudis who are in Brazil on a trade mission. Several deals were lined up during the meetings, which counted on the participation of approximately 80 Brazilian businessmen.
According to the person in charge of exports at Café Canecão, Khalil Fraig, two Saudi trading companies that do not yet operate in the sector showed interest in importing coffee from the company. Café Canecão is based in the city of Campinas, in the interior of São Paulo state, and produces 250,000 kilograms of coffee per month. According to Fraig, the company has been exporting to Saudi Arabia for two and a half years. The contacts were established at trade fairs. Café Canecão also sells to countries such as Japan, New Zealand and South Africa.
The owner of Glasart, a company from São Paulo that manufactures mirrors, frames, and decoration items, also ended the business roundtables on a high note. Vânia Facchina and the director of Marketing and Design at the company, Sônia Facchina Harrell, took mirrors adorned with typically Brazilian raw materials, such as coconut fibre, buriti straw, and banana-tree fibre, to the roundtables. According to Vânia, one of the Saudi businessmen became interested in importing a container to test the product on the local market. The deal, though, still depends on price negotiations.
EBTrade, from Curitiba, also made promising contacts for exports and imports. The company is interested in importing polypropylene, according to its owner, Eduardo Barros, and at the roundtables he met Saudis who committed themselves to intermediate the negotiations for the trading company to find a supplier in the Arab country. Barros also presented to the Saudis the products that he is interested in supplying to the Arab world: accessories for furniture and sports equipment, such as snooker and table tennis tables.
The Saudis promised to evaluate the Brazilian products for future purchases. The director general at the Al-Rai group, Mohamed Bo Khamseenn, was interested in concentrated juices, frozen products, fish, and dairy products. The company owns several food processing industries, such as a juice factory. "This visit is a preparation for future visits, for us to establish businesses with Brazilian companies," Khamseenn told ANBA. The businessman claimed that he wants to test Brazilian products on the Saudi market.
The general manager at Mohamed Y Bu Khamseen, Mohamed Yassen Bu Khamseen, said he liked the Brazilian products. His company imports and distributes products for construction projects, such as facing and decoration objects. He currently imports from China, Germany and India. Jamal A. Al-Ghanem, general manager at Jamal A. Al-Ghanem Est., came to the mission interested in buying Brazilian furniture.
According to the manager, the Brazilian companies with which he made contact are good companies, and they are exporters. Most of them, though, are manufacturers of modern furniture, and the Saudi wants to import classic furniture. The businessman currently buys furniture from China. He imports approximately 120 containers per year.
Mission
Today (23) the Saudi delegation will pay a visit to the head offices of the Federation of Industries of the State of São Paulo (Fiesp). In the afternoon, the group will leave to the Brazilian capital Brasília, where they will attend a dinner offered by the embassy of Saudi Arabia to the Brazilian capital. Tomorrow the group will participate in business roundtables at the Federation of Industries of the Federal District. On Friday, the delegation members will be in the southeastern Brazilian city of Rio de Janeiro, where they will also attend business meetings with executives, organised by the Federation of Industries of the State of Rio de Janeiro.
*Translated by Gabriel Pomerancblum
