Isaura Daniel*
São Paulo – Who said that in the houses of the ancient traders of spices there is no space for Brazilian spices and flavours? Peppers and cloves from Brazil are on the tables of countries like Tunisia, Morocco, Algeria, the United Arab Emirates, Egypt, Yemen, Jordan, Mauritania and Lebanon. Ruette Spice, an exporter of black pepper and cloves from the state of São Paulo, in southeastern Brazil, supplies both products to the Arab world.
Ruette Spice belongs to group Embramac and works exclusively with the foreign market. Last year the company exported 7,400 tonnes of black pepper and 2,200 tonnes of cloves. According to the vice president of Embramac, José Ruette Filho, the company has almost tripled sales in the last two years. But despite importing the products, the Arabs are not yet large customers.
Apart from Ruette Spice, Embramac also has Ruette Fresh, a company that exports fruit. Last year, Ruette Fresh sold 360,000 boxes of tangerines on the foreign market. This year, the harvest provided 440,000 boxes of the fruit for export. The fruit is also sold to the Arab market. Sales of tangerines to the Arabs are grater than those of spices, according to José.
Together, Ruette Spice and Ruette Fresh answer to 72 countries, among them the United States, Canada, England, Germany, France, Italy, Japan, Russia, the Mauritius Islands, the Philippines, Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam and Malaysia. This year, the companies also started exporting to Nepal and Iceland. To the Arab market, the products have been shipped for around seven years. According to José, sales began when Arabs customers who purchased company products through Europe made direct got in touch with Ruette.
The fruit, pepper and cloves are purchased by the company from outsourced producers. In the case of spices, half of the production is purchased from registered producers and another half comes from farmers who receive funds for cultivation, and are accompanied by Ruette agronomists. The pepper is produced in Pará, in the north of Brazil, and the cloves in the south of Bahia state, in northeastern Brazil. The same structure exists in the case of fruit. The cultivation of tangerines, however, is in the southeastern state of São Paulo.
Ruette Spice was established in 1998 and has administrative activities in the city of Campinas, in the interior of the state of São Paulo. So as to take care of logistics and customs clearance, the company has an office in Belém, capital of the state of Pará, and a packaging centre in Castanhal, also in Pará. In the case of cloves, the company has an office and a packing centre in Valença, in the state of Bahia. Ruette Fresh also has its head offices in Campinas, and a packaging centre in Limeira, in the interior of the state of São Paulo. The company was established in 2003.
Ruette Fresh has a partnership with the Brazilian Export Promotion Agency (Apex) and with the Brazilian Fruit Institute (Ibraf). The company shows its products at the Brazilian Fruit Festival, through which both organizations promote the sampling of Brazilian fruit at international supermarkets. The project started being implemented last year and should travel to a total of 18 countries up to the end of next year, among them Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Lebanon and Qatar. Ruette Fresh also has partnerships with French supermarket chain Carrefour. The company supplied fruit for sampling in supermarkets in Poland, the Czech Republic and Slovakia.
*Translated by Mark Ament
