São Paulo – The Agribusiness Seminar Brazil & Indonesia – Green, Sustainable & Halal (pictured above) gathered on Tuesday (31) in Jakarta, Indonesia, businesspeople, government officials, and industry associations interested in opportunities to expand halal business and trade between Brazil and the Southeast Asian country.
Held by the Halal do Brasil project, a partnership between the Arab-Brazilian Chamber of Commerce (ABCC) and the Brazilian Trade and Investments Promotion Agency (ApexBrasil), the seminar was part of a business mission held by Brazil’s Ministry of Agriculture and Ministry of Foreign Affairs that will also visit India.
Brazil mostly exports soybean products and sugar to the Asian country and is interested in expanding beef and live animal sales. ABCC CEO & secretary-general Tamer Mansour told ANBA that the seminar was “massively attended” by both Brazilians and Indonesians and the bilateral trade prospects are good.
“Interesting talks were held about opening the market to halal (goods from Brazil). The visit of the minister was positive,” said Mansour. According to him, Brazil is able to meet the Indonesian increased demand for beef and various others halal foods and beverages. In his speech at the seminar, Mansour pointed out the Brazilian halal market is worth USD 5-6 billion a year.
According to figures from Brazil’s Ministry of Development, Industry, Trade and Services, beef exports to Indonesia grossed USD 110 million in 2022, up 25.3% from a year earlier. Brazil’s overall exports to Indonesia grossed USD 3.1 billion in 2022, while imports hit USD 1.8 billion. Agricultural goods lead the bilateral trade.
The seminar and other bilateral meetings featured discussions on opening the poultry market. Indonesia still doesn’t export chicken from Brazil, but Luís Rua, markets director of meat lobby ABPA, was part of the Brazilian delegation in the business mission. These talks, Mansour said, are expected to take “a little longer.”
The mission also featured representatives from Brazil’s live animal exporters association Abreav, live cattle exporters association Abeg, beef producers lobby Abiec, and certifiers FAMBRAS Halal and Cdial Halal. Indonesia’s Chamber of Commerce and Industry (KADIN) president Juan Adoe attended, too.
“The opening of that market to live animal imports (from Brazil) was also discussed, as they are interested in importing animals to produce milk,” said Mansour. According to information from Brazil’s Agriculture Ministry, Indonesia opened its market to imports of live animals in August and has a demand of over 600,000 head of cattle a year for herd restoration and genetic improvement. According to the Ministry, the regulation in force already allows for Brazil to export the animals to Indonesia.
Agriculture minister Carlos Fávaro and Brazil’s ambassador to Jakarta, George Prata, met with Indonesia’s deputy minister of foreign affairs, with whom they discussed a scientific and technical cooperation.
The mission also featured the signing by the agriculture ministers of both countries of an agreement for development of food-and-mouth disease vaccines. Brazil’s Agriculture Ministry reported this partnership will give Indonesia access to the technologies developed by Brazil to create FMD vaccines. The agreement is a implementation guideline to ensure the supply of raw and intermediate material to produce vaccines, manage technology transfer to manufacture diagnostic kits in Indonesia and boost the productive capacity and local vaccination tests.
Translated by Guilherme Miranda
