São Paulo – The objective is to export 44% more in 2010, to obtain US$ 77 million in revenues from foreign sales. Last year, Cocamar Cooperativa Industrial, based in the southern Brazilian state of Paraná, exported the equivalent of US$ 54 million, totalling 126,700 tonnes of products shipped to destinations such as Europe, Asia and North America. From now on, growth should be driven by sales of higher value-added products, and by conquering new, promising markets such as the Middle East.
Along these lines, items such as tropical fruit juice and soy-based drinks are gaining strength. Presently, the segment already ranks third in the cooperative’s list of most exported items, after soy chaff, and concentrated and frozen orange juice.
“Cocamar’s beverage sector should grow by 20% in terms of production and 66% in terms of exports this year,” says the cooperative’s trade manager for Retail Products, Marco Roberto Alarcon. According to him, the Middle East is among the most important markets to be developed in 2010. “Presently, we sell to four Arab countries, and we intend to increase that figure,” he claims.
The Paraná-based cooperative’s first sales deals to the Arabs were closed during the last edition of Gulfood, a food industry trade fair held in Dubai, in February. The items sold were fruit juice and soy-based drinks. “Our juice has pleased the taste of Arab consumers,” guarantees Alarcon.
The executive claims to have closed deals with a few buyers shortly after they tasted the products, before the Gulfood fair ended. The most successful flavours are varieties such as a guarana and assai mix. “Tropical flavours have a strong appeal abroad,” explains Alarcon, adding that Cocamar’s beverages currently reach 15 different countries.
Another line that the cooperative will focus on in 2010 is essential oils, which are highly sought-after raw materials outside Brazil. Such is the case, for instance, with oil extracted from fruit peel, used by the perfumery industry and in great demand in countries such as France, for instance.
Cocamar expects to produce 600 tonnes of essential oil this year, which it will sell for US$ 2,000 per tonne. To give an idea, it takes eight boxes of fruit to obtain just one kilogram of oil, which justifies the product’s high price.
Cocamar posted 1.3 billion Brazilian real (US$ 740 million) in revenues in 2009 and is expecting to reach the 1.4 billion real (US$ 797 million) mark this year. The cooperative’s headquarters, which rank among the five largest in Brazilian agriculture, is located in the city of Maringá, 410 kilometres away from the capital of Paraná, Curitiba. In total, Cocamar has 6,100 affiliated farmers who receive, sell, and process agricultural products such as soy, maize, coffee, wheat, and orange.
*Translated by Gabriel Pomerancblum
