São Paulo – Trading companies account for 16% of Brazilian exports to the Arab countries. According to figures supplied by the Brazilian Ministry of Development, Industry and Foreign Trade, trading companies posted US$ 1.04 billion in revenues from exports to Arab countries in the first six months this year. Brazil exported US$ 6.5 billion in products to the Middle East and North Africa during the period. The share of trading companies in trade with the region is higher than their share in total exports from Brazil: 10.1% of US$ 117.2 billion in the first six months of 2012.
“Trading companies perform better when it comes to the Arab world because doing business with Arabs requires more work and longer-standing relationships. Many industries are unable to do business in the medium and long terms, but trading companies live off those, they have the time and investment for it,” says the coordinator of the Special Projects Unit of the Brazilian Export and Investment Promotion Agency (Apex), Mauricio Manfrê.
Apex maintains a project called Brasil Trade whose goal is to foster exports, especially by small and medium businesses, via trading companies. The initiative comprises 726 businesses, of which more than 100 export to Arab countries. Last year, out of US$ 3 billion exported by this type of enterprise, 26% went to the Arab market, says Manfrê. In 2010 the rate was 21%, and in 2009 it was 20%.
Brasil Trade provides small and medium Brazilian businesses with qualification to export, through the Industrial Exporting Extension Project (Peiex), and then places them in touch with trading companies. From there, partnerships emerge for either indirect exports – the trading company buys the product and resells it overseas – or direct exports, with the trading company representing the selling company. Then, the trading companies take part in actions to foster sales in Brazil and abroad. Each year, four missions or business matchmaking rounds are held with importers.
Manfrê explains that the trading companies in the project sell products such as fruit juices, chicken and beef (halal), processed beverages, wines for hotels and restaurants, machinery and equipment, and building materials to the Arab countries. Some grain is sold as well, but 20% of exports consist of industrialized products.
The Apex project is mainly comprised of medium and small trading companies. The figures of the Ministry of Development, Industry and Foreign Trade, on the other hand, do not include only the companies participating in the project, but all sorts of trading companies, including the Brazilian giants. The main products exported by these companies to the world are iron ore and soy. Brazilian trading companies exported a combined US$ 11.9 billion in the first half.
Exports of Brazilian trading companies to the Arab world were virtually stable from January to June this year compared with the same period of last year, having declined by only 0.3%. The Arab importing countries to which these companies sold this year, by order of importance, were Saudi Arabia, Oman, Egypt, United Arab Emirates, Yemen, Libya, Kuwait, Algeria, Iraq, Tunisia, Morocco, Qatar, Jordan, Lebanon, Mauritania, Bahrain, Djibouti, Sudan, Syria and Comoros.
*Translated by Gabriel Pomerancblum
