São Paulo – The stand of the Arab Brazilian Chamber of Commerce at the Damascus International Fair, in Syria, has received businessmen interested in importing various Brazilian products, such as chicken, coffee, clothing, antennae for TV sets and technology for ethanol production. According to the Market Development analyst of the Arab Brazilian Chamber, Rafael Abdulmassih, the fair is also a means to promote the services that the organisation supplies.
“To all of those visiting the stand, I provide an explanation about the Arab Brazilian Chamber’s commercial consultation service, which makes it easy for importers to find a company that exports a given product,” said Abdulmassih. According to him, in addition to Syrians, the stand was also visited by Iraqis, who showed much interested in the products by company Antenas Cristal, a maker of antennae for television sets.
The stand, which also counts on support from the Brazilian embassy in Syria, is exhibiting several catalogues by furniture, women’s fashion, sanitary metals, auto parts, and antennae manufacturing companies. The embassy also brought along brochures for promoting tourism in Brazil. “The Syrians are largely unaware of Brazil,” said Abdulmassih. According to him, the country needs further promotion work in Syria, and not only with regard to tourism, but also concerning its economic potential.
On the sidelines of the event, Abdulmassih and the director of the Arab Brazilian Chamber, Sami Roumieh, are attending several meetings with authorities and representatives of government organisations. The visits included a meeting between Roumieh and the Syrian Minister of Tourism, Saadullah Agha Al-Qalaa, who showed interest in attracting a greater number of South American tourists, particularly Brazilian ones.
The Damascus fair will continue until Wednesday (22nd) and brings together 4,523 exhibitors from 48 different countries. According to Abdulmassih, the Syrians are very sympathetic towards Brazil and love to talk, especially about football.
*Translated by Gabriel Pomerancblum
