JEDDAH, 21 September 2003 — Brazil, which grows a variety of fruits and food products year-round, has offered to share its expertise with farmers in the Kingdom and elsewhere in the Middle East.
“Because of the availability of water from our rivers, we’ve been able to produce food, even in our deserts. We can share our success with growers in this part of the world,” a Brazilian expert, told Arab News during a “Taste of Brazil” program at the Jeddah Marriott Hotel yesterday.
The program is a government one, organized jointly by the Brazilian Food Industry Association (ABIA) and Brazilian Agency for Exports Promotion (APEX).
“We’re a major producer of food and fruits but our production concentrates on domestic demands. It has only been in recent years that we have begun exploring the prospects of exports, especially to the Kingdom, the rest of the Middle East and the Far East,” Angelo Piovesan, manager of trade shows at the Sao Paulo-based ProMaker International Marketing, said.
Brazil, which occupies 48 percent of South America and accounts for 80 percent of orange juice consumed worldwide, participated in SaudiFood 2003 in Riyadh which ended over the weekend.
“Best known for its carnival, soccer, beaches and forests, Brazil re-emerges into the new global economy — influencing and making contributions. The country excels in diverse traditional cuisine that take their roots in its different regions. The country today boasts a record 80 kg per capita production of fruits,” said Roland Brandes, director general of a company specializing in varieties of apples.
“We’re today like a sleeping giant waking in the fruit sector. We export only 10 percent of about a million tons of apples that we grow. However, exports have been increasing lately,” he said, adding that 30,000 people are directly involved in apple production. The country’s storage capacity for apples exceeds 330,000 tons, which explains how the fruit is available throughout the year.
“We’re willing to share information on producing grapes, mangoes and melons with fruit growers in the Arab world,” he said. “Our country is also known for cheese rolls, coffee and rich sources of mineral water in addition to exotic fruits from the Amazon,” Brandes added.
From 500 companies involved in food exports in 2001, the number will reach 3,000 by 2003 and grow to more than 5,000 in the next few years, according to Brandes.
The country is also mounting gastronomic weeks in five cities around the world — Lisbon and Moscow in October and Cologne, New York and Dubai in November.
