São Paulo – Half of what Brazil exports comes from São Paulo, Minas Gerais and Rio de Janeiro. The challenge is to have a larger number of states contribute more to the country’s trade balance. The potential is there, so the Brazilian Ministry of Development, Industry and Foreign Trade launched the Plano Nacional da Cultura Exportadora (National Exporter Culture Plan) this year.
The project involves 14 units of the federation which, alone, account for less than 1% of Brazilian foreign sales. Is the country short in supplies to offer foreigners? Hardly. Let us say that just a slight push is needed so that more national products will be shipped abroad. Especially by small and medium companies.
And said products will come precisely from the states participating in the initiative. These are: Ceará, which accounted for 0.63% of Brazilian foreign sales in 2010, Amazonas (0.55%), Pernambuco (0.55%), Alagoas (0.48%), Rondônia (0.21%), Amapá (0.17%), Tocantins (0.17%), Rio Grande do Norte (0.14%), Paraíba (0.11%), Federal District (0.08%), Piauí (0.06%), Sergipe (0.04%), Acre (0.01%) and Roraima (0.01%).
“The aim of the National Exporter Culture Plan is to broaden and increase the quality of the country’s exporter base,” explains the Ministry’s Foreign Trade secretary, Tatiana Lacerda Prazeres. “We will implement a foreign trade policy in each of these states based on strategic goals,” she says.
Generally speaking, each state should assess its possibilities of participation in the foreign market, do research, mapping, and implement actions for growth in that respect, always under the ministry’s coordination and supported by a local organization. That should lead to projects to foster and support new technologies and potential sectors, and later on participations in business missions, trade fairs and matchmaking rounds, among other possibilities.
“Some of the states participating in the plan do not boast a sufficiently favourable, strong, and competitive institutional framework to boost their exports,” Tatiana. “Initially, that calls for laying groundwork, providing training, devising policies for the exporting sector, with an eye on medium- and long-term results,” he says.
According to Tatiana, the project focuses on small and medium companies. Presently, these enterprises account for 5.1% of the Brazilian foreign sales.
Brazil attained an export record in September: US$ 23.3 billion. The figure exceeded the U$ 20 billion revenues posted in September 2008. The trade surplus during the month was also a highlight: US$ 3.1 billion, the best result since September 2007, when exports reached US$ 3.5 billion.
Year-to-date as of September, the trade surplus stands at US$ 23 billion, has already surpassed the whole of 2010: US$ 20.2 billion. To the ministry, the figures are a result of measures such as the diversification of buyer markets for Brazilian products. That includes Arab countries. The process should gain even further strength as export activities increase in the states.
Getting down to business
In the states included in the ministry’s project, the order is to get to work toward the foreign market. In Ceará, for instance, the goal is to have exports increase threefold by 2015. The state, which is the third leading exporter in the Northeast, after Bahia and Maranhão, sold the equivalent of US$ 1.2 billion to the world in 2010, and should reach US$ 1.3 billion in 2011. “Up until 2015, we want to reach the US$ 2 billion mark,” says the Market and Projects analyst at the Development Agency of the State of Ceará (Adece), Sergio Baima.
According to Baima, in addition to the National Exporter Culture Plan, the growth will be driven by investment in the ironworks and refining industries the state should receive in coming months. Another important area is agribusiness. “We want to export much more in this field, especially fisheries,” he says.
Currently, the main items shipped by Ceará are shoes, cashew nuts, leather, fruit and textiles. “In addition to increasing the number of products exported, we need to have more companies selling, such as small- and medium-sized companies,” says Baima. “That is where the National Exporter Culture Plan comes in.”
To the Ceará Development Agency’s analyst, investment is also required in order to conquer more foreign clients. “As of 2001, the United States purchased 45.2% of everything Ceará exported,” says Baima. “Now, the rate is 29.6%. The reason is not that the country has a problem, but rather that we have new trade partners, which is great.” Along these lines, says Baima, Arab and Asian countries emerge as potential partners.
From Pernambuco to the world
Following Ceará in the ranking of leading exporting states in the Brazilian Northeast, Pernambuco is also setting its growth targets. The state wants to become ever more visible in the eyes of the world.
According to the Foreign Trade manager with the Economic Development Agency of Pernambuco (Ad Diper), Ivone Malaquias, there are now nine small and medium companies undergoing export-oriented training in the state. And that is only within the National Exporter Culture Plan. “The goal is to have 30 more participants by 2012 and another 30 by 2014,” she says.
All of the businessmen involved, Ivone explains, are monitored systematic on a daily basis in order to prepare themselves to export. “We instruct them all to inform the Ad Diper of their difficulties, we are in charge of coordinating the National Exporter Culture Plan in the State.”
Currently, Pernambuco exports cleaning products, chemicals, cosmetics, furniture, clothing, granite and even wines made in the São Francisco River valley region, near the border with Bahia. “Our export portfolio is diversified, it comprises over 640 items,” says Ivone. “The challenge is to lower the concentration that we have today, as sugar represents 45% of our foreign sales,” she says. “We must learn to sell more of other items.”
In 2010, Pernambuco posted export revenues of US$ 1.06 billion. Any targets for 2011? “To grow by 10%,” explains Ivone, as she expects more, much more, of her state in coming years.
*Translated by Gabriel Pomerancblum
