São Paulo – Tunisian exports have gone from US$ 5.5 billion, ten years ago, to US$ 14.4 billion last year. According to the president of the Tunisian Export Promotion Center (Cepex), Abdellatif Hamam, who is currently in Brazil, foreign sales have grown at an average of 10.4% per year.
Exports have increased mainly in the agricultural, electromechanical and chemical sectors. Another important segment to the country’s foreign trade is textiles. Last year, the country shipped 5,880 different types of products to 156 countries.
“Right now, growing on the international market is very important. We cannot remain focused on traditional markets, we need to diversify,” said Hamam. According to him, Brazil is one of th priority markets for Tunisia. “It is a country with an emerging economy, it is part of the BRICs (Brazil, Russia, India and China) and has the world’s ninth most promising economy,” he added.
Another factor mentioned by Hamam was the large Arab community that lives in the country. According to him, there are many opportunities for importing dates and olive oil from Tunisia, which are products consumed by the colony. The Arab country is the world’s second leading exporter of olive oil, after the European Union.
It was with this purpose that Tunisian businessmen attended business matchmaking rounds with Brazilian companies at the Arab Brazilian Chamber of Commerce yesterday (2nd) in São Paulo. Tunisian representatives of dates company Sodutex and olive oil group Slama attended, and both are interested in exporting to Brazil. “Here, there are many consumers of olive oil, and there is a very strong community of Arab origin that demands specific products,” said the president of the Slama Group, Ali Slama.
The group, whose operations range from olive farming to oil bottling and distribution, has an annual production capacity of 4,000 tonnes of olive oil. The main targets of the enterprise, which began exporting six years ago, include Middle Eastern countries, China, Canada, Spain and Portugal. The latter two import oil in vats, and the remaining ones, in bottles.
“Our product has quality and competitive pricing,” said Slama. According to him, Brazilian companies have shown great interest in his olive oil, and have requested samples. Such is the case of importing company La Rioja, which imports products ranging from olive oil to fresh fruit and fish from 80 different countries.
According to La Rioja’s export manager, Cassiano Franco Jr., the company already imports an olive oil brand from Tunisia and is interested in getting to know other brands. La Rioja also imports fresh and oleaginous fruit from Arab countries Lebanon, Syria and from Tunisia itself. “We are deeply interested in getting to know Tunisian olive oil and dates,” said Franco.
According to the chairman of Sodutex’s board of administration, Mohamed Sahraoui, the company has operated solely with exports for 10 years now. The company’s dates are already shipped to 15 countries. With 250 employees, Sodutex has an annual production capacity of 250,000 tonnes of dates. “Now, we want to export to Brazil,” said Sahraoui.
*Translated by Gabriel Pomerancblum
