Brazil mulls exploring GCC’s expanding fruit market

Brazil deliberates exploring the GCC’s lucrative fruit market to further expand its food trade with the region. According to a recent research conducted by ApexBrasil—the Brazilian Trade and Investment Promotion Agency, the South American country should concentrate on increasing the import of fresh eggs, Brazilian nuts, lemons and limes, grapes, melons, and cloves to expand its list of food supplied to the Arabian Peninsula. The survey is based on the study of Brazil’s share in local imports and the expansion in the purchase of imported food by the GCC countries. In 2014, the UAE imported $69.6 million worth of lime of which only 9.7 per cent was supplied by Brazil.

While competing countries increased their sales by 29.8 per cent between 2010 and 2014, Brazil surged its sales by 43.4 per cent for the same period. Likewise, the UAE’s import of grapes is $85.9 million per year and Brazil expanded its supply to 185.6 per cent between 2010 and 2014 while other supplying countries increased only to 21.5 per cent. Lastly, Brazil accounts for 27.7 per cent of import of fresh eggs to the UAE.

The study, though important, relies primarily on the data collected from the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) and the UAE as these are the region’s premier destination for global food and beverage exports as well as Brazilian imports. Of the total exports from Brazil, the UAE accounts for 0.63 per cent, while it was 0.56 per cent for KSA with food and beverage category accounting for 1.1 per cent and 2.5 per cent in the respective countries.

Dr Michel Alaby, Secretary General and CEO, ABCC, said: “In the light of the recent survey indicating tremendous potential in food trade with the GCC countries, Brazil is exploring to expand in the fruit category. The demand for foreign food has surged significantly in the Arabian Gulf driven by population growth, low local production, and high economic standard. Responding to the demand, Brazil has also increased its share of fruit imports to the region.