{"id":367509,"date":"2024-05-31T10:41:21","date_gmt":"2024-05-31T13:41:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/?p=367509"},"modified":"2024-05-31T10:41:25","modified_gmt":"2024-05-31T13:41:25","slug":"fruits-brazil-grows-many-but-exports-few","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/fruits-brazil-grows-many-but-exports-few\/","title":{"rendered":"Fruits: Brazil grows many but exports few"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

S\u00e3o Paulo and Casa Nova \u2013 Brazil grows many fruits but exports little compared to the sheer size of its crops. According to Sueme Mori, international relations director of agricultural lobby CNA, in 2023 USD 1.256 billion was grossed from exports.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a good number, but it\u2019s very low compared to the sheer size of Brazilian agricultural production. We export approximately 2.7% of our fruit production. This is very little given our production\u2019s diversity and volume. There\u2019s room to increase sales,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"Sueme
Sueme Mori, director of international relations at CNA: Logistics and phytosanitary barriers must be overcome<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

In May, ANBA and other news outlets from Brazil, Argentina, China, Italy, Germany and the United Kingdom participated in a trip to the S\u00e3o Francisco Valley in the Brazilian semi-arid region that thanks to the irrigation provided by the river, grows crops of fruits, particularly mangoes and grapes. By the invitation of CNA, the outlets met companies and people that produce and export fruits, juices and even wine from farms in Bahia and Pernambuco. Mori participated in the trip.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Data from the CNA shows that countries in the Middle East imported USD 19.7 million from Brazil last year. The United Arab Emirates alone imported USD 12.8 million, followed by Saudi Arabia (USD 2.8 million), Israel (USD 1.38 million) and Kuwait (USD 1.2 million), as wells as Qatar, Oman, Lebanon, Chipre, Bahrain and Jordan to a lesser extent. Out of these, only Israel and Chipre are not Arabs. These figures include fresh fruit, dried fruit, and preserves and conserves. Apple tops the list of fruit exports that also includes melon, lime, grape, mango, watermelon, fig, papaya, and others.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Challenge for fruit exports<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The CNA\u2019s director mentions some barriers that need to be overcome for widening fruit exports. Competition with producing countries that are closer to consumers is one of them. Mango is grown in the Ivory Coast, an African nation that is closer to Arabs. Peru exports it in the last months of the year at a lower cost compared to Brazil.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Read more:
<\/em>The new frontier of Miolo in northeast Brazil<\/a>
Bronzed mangoes to suit taste of consumers<\/a>
From Japan to UAE, via Brazil\u2019s Sert\u00e3o<\/a>
S\u00e3o Francisco Valley: Fertile ground for exports<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another challenge is logistics. Fruits may take over 40 days to be shipped by sea from Brazil to the UAE. As there is no direct sea lane between the two countries, the quality of the fruits may be harmed when changing ships in European ports. Mangoes, for example, can\u2019t endure 40 days from harvest to consumption. The solution is exporting by air via S\u00e3o Paulo. This pushes up the costs, though.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cFor fruit, there is this particularity and also the market opening and the negotiation of a phytosanitary protocol. So, for fresh fruits, the countries have to agree on the protocols. Some have regulation that are similar to Brazil\u2019s, but others don\u2019t,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

From Brazil\u2019s Sert\u00e3o to the UAE, Kuwait\u2026<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

One of the companies based in the farms of Casa Nova, Bahia state, is GrandValle<\/a>, established by Gilberto Secchi and now also run by members of the second generation of his family. The headquarters at the farm\u2019s entrance is built and decorated with traditional features and methods of the Sert\u00e3o like mud and rammed earth, a technique using compacted earth.<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"Lara
Lara Secchi, director of GrandValle: Company only uses as much water from the S\u00e3o Francisco River as needed for irrigation and avoids waste<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Beyond that, you find different fruit crops. In addition to being sold domestically and exported, they contribute to other businesses of the company: Sheep and goats are fed with grape meal among other things. The water that irrigates the crop is harvested directly from the S\u00e3o Francisco River which borders the farm. \u201cIt may seem that we have water galore, but it\u2019s not like that. We only use the water we consume,\u201d says GrandValle director-general Lara Secchi.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The farm ships fruits to several countries, but not to others for lack of phytosanitary agreements as pointed out by the CNA\u2019s director. GrandValle logistics manager Guilherme Secchi explains that before scoping out business with clients from a certain country, the company looks up in Brazil\u2019s Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock if there are fruit export agreements with that market in particular.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIf there isn\u2019t, there\u2019s no point in following through because we won\u2019t be able to export,\u201d he says. \u201cClients from Morocco have shown interest in buying, but we couldn\u2019t because of that. Now we export to Kuwait and the UAE, but it isn\u2019t a regular process, as they go by air from Guarulhos to Dubai.\u201d Fruits shipped by air take four days to reach consumers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Existing opportunities<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The CNA\u2019s director says there are opportunities to expand sales to Middle East and North Africa countries. These are regions that struggle to develop their own fruit production due to climate and soil conditions. Such challenges lead some countries in these regions to implement food importing policies to ensure food security.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMENA is a large market. The UAE, on top of everything else, offers several facilities. It\u2019s also a region where many countries have food security policies and take the food security issue very seriously, thus establishing import facilities, particularly those that don\u2019t produce food domestically,\u201d says Mori.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The journalist traveled by the invitation of CNA<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Translated by Guilherme Miranda<\/strong><\/p>\n

Rafael Vieira\/Supplied CNA<\/div>
Rafael Vieira\/Supplied CNA<\/div>
Rafael Vieira\/Supplied CNA<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In the last report of the special series on the S\u00e3o Francisco Valley\u2019s agricultural production, check what and where is the potential for Brazilian sales to other countries, including in the Middle East.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2317,"featured_media":367455,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[102],"tags":[32886,49578,28252,2540,27285,49623,49518,2063,31608,2374,10626,49622],"class_list":{"0":"post-367509","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-agribusiness","8":"tag-bahia-en-2","9":"tag-casa-nova-2","10":"tag-cna-en-2","11":"tag-fruits","12":"tag-frutas-en-2","13":"tag-grandvalle-2","14":"tag-mangoes","15":"tag-middle-east","16":"tag-norte-da-africa-en","17":"tag-north-africa","18":"tag-oriente-medio-ar","19":"tag-sao-franciso-river"},"wps_subtitle":"In the last report of the special series on the S\u00e3o Francisco Valley\u2019s agricultural production, check what and where is the potential for Brazilian sales to other countries, including in the Middle East.","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/367509","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2317"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=367509"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/367509\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/367455"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=367509"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=367509"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=367509"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}