Brazil has a challenge and an opportunity ahead to step up the sales of value-added agricultural goods to the Arab countries, said Arab Brazilian Chamber of Commerce (ABCC) president Rubens Hannun. “In the first quarter of 2021, we stepped up agricultural sales to Arabs by 9%. They are extremely loyal countries, even amid moments of restrictions in exports,” said Hannun. In addition to the bloc’s top buyers – Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and the United Arab Emirates – the president stressed the “dramatic growth of Bahrain”, Qatar and Morocco in recent months. He believes the growth trend is strong in Brazilian trade with Arab countries such as Yemen and Libya. “But we have a very big challenge ahead as most of our products are commodities. So, we also have an opportunity to include more value-added products,” said Hannun. Likewise, ABCC secretary-general Tamer Mansour pointed out the trade with Arabs is a win-win partnership. “Unfortunately, we still export many unindustrialized products. Now we must seed the Arab countries as hubs for our [value-added] products. In Africa, we have Egypt, Morocco. In the Gulf, the UAE, Bahrain, as well as the Saudis, which can be considered as hubs for the halal market,” stressed the ABCC secretary-general.
Source: Brazil-Arab News Agency (ANBA)