Isaura Daniel
São Paulo – The United Arab Emirates were the second largest destination for products exported by Brazilian cooperatives between the months of January and September this year, losing only to China. Of the six million tonnes sold by them on the foreign market in the period, 685 million, or 11%, went to the country in the Middle East.
It was also with the Emirates that the national cooperatives had their third largest export revenues. Sales to the country generated US$ 112 million, a value only lower than that obtained with shipping to China and Germany.
"The cooperatives are also consolidating and opening new markets among the Arab countries," stated the technical advisor of the Organization of Brazilian Cooperatives (OCB), Júlio Pohl. Up to September last year, the number of Arab nations that imported products from Brazilian cooperatives was 16. This year the figure has risen to 19 this year.
The new buyers are Iraq, Jordan and Libya. Countries that were already included in the list were the Emirates, Algeria, Morocco, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Egypt, Tunisia, Yemen, Mauritania, Kuwait, Oman, Lebanon, Qatar, Djibouti, the Comoros and Bahrain.
Together, the Arab countries purchased US$ 262.6 million from Brazilian cooperatives in the first nine months of the year, a value 66.2% greater than in the same period in 2003. This percentage was little over the increase in exports by cooperatives in general, which totalled 61%.
They exported a total of US$ 1.6 billion to 117 countries between January and September, US$ 611 million more than the US$ 999 million in the same period last year. According to Pohl, shipping revenues should reach US$ 1.8 billion up to the end of the year. He pointed out, however, that this is a conservative estimate, and the value may be greater.
The main cooperative products imported by the Arabs were sugar, chicken meat and cattle beef. Of the US$ 112 million spent by the Emirates, for example, US$ 60 million were sugar. "But chicken and cattle beef exports to the Emirates have also risen," stated Pohl.
The list of main products sold by Brazilian cooperatives also includes apples. The growth of export to the Emirates in the period was 48.5% in revenues and 58.3% in volume.
To some Arab countries the growth in shipping was even greater, although they import lower volumes. That is the case with Algeria, which purchased US$ 184,000 between January and September 2003, and US$ 41.2 million in the same months in 2004. Algeria is the second largest Arab importer of products made by Brazilian cooperatives. Sales to Tunisia rose from US$ 2.6 million to US$ 6.7 million, and to Syria, the increase was from US$ 1.1 million to US$ 11 million.
On the other hand, sales to Morocco dropped 1.8%, those to Egypt, 34%, to Oman, 21%, Lebanon, 53%, and Qatar, 51%, those to Djibouti and Bahrain, 97%. Apart form Egypt, however, none of these countries purchases more than US$ 10 million. "In the case of Egypt, the drop is probably due to the modification in sugar shipping dates," stated the OCB technical advisor.
According to Pohl, the Arab market is being won by cooperatives mainly through participation in fairs in the region. The fact that these organizations bring together various producers generates a gain in scale and also helps them enter the foreign market. "Apart from being able to offer a lower price due to the large volume of products sold, they have cost reductions when purchasing inputs as a group," he explained.
In Brazil there are currently 7,355 cooperatives, among them 1,519 are agricultural, 1,115 credit and 2,024 labour cooperatives, just to mention the main areas. Agricultural cooperatives are the ones that employ the largest number of people. Up to the end of last year, they had 110,900 employees. The country also includes a total of 940,000 farmers associated to cooperatives.
Production that comes from Paraná
Paraná, in southern Brazil, is the state where cooperative export most. Of the US$ 1.6 billion sold by national cooperatives between January and September, US$ 847.8 million were generated by cooperatives in the state. They increased export revenues by 59.1% in the period and the shipping by 35%.
According to estimates by the Union and Organization of Cooperatives of the State of Paraná (Ocepar), sales should reach US$ 1 billion up to the end of December. Cooperatives from the state of Paraná export to over 60 countries. The products range from soy (in grain, ground and oil), chicken, maize, coffee, sugar, pork, cotton, juice, wheat and even preserves, silk and cheese.
São Paulo, in southeastern Brazil, is the second state in terms of cooperative exports. It is followed by the southern states of Rio Grande do Sul and Santa Catarina, and by the southeastern state of Minas Gerais. Agricultural cooperatives answer to a large part of the Brazilian grain production. In the case of wheat, they answer to 62.19%. In the area of barley, cooperatives are responsible for 44% of production, in oats, for 39.2%, in milk, 39.7%, in cotton, 38.9%, in pork, 31.5% and in soy, 29.4%.
