|
Brazilian musical instruments have accelerated their rhythm of export. Last year, sector foreign sales doubled and generated over US$ 10 million.
Apart from the quality, the low cost is one of the main competitive advantages of Brazilian instruments, which cost around two thirds of the price of products made in other countries. According to figures supplied by the Brazilian Music Association (Abemúsica), nowadays the sector in the country, which had revenues of US$ 169 million in 2004, in current figures, and generates around 5,000 direct jobs, sells to 40 countries. For 2005, the organization's estimate is growth of 40% in exports. The main destination markets for foreign sales, which started timidly around 15 years ago, are still the United States and Mexico. Arab countries, like the United Arab Emirates, are among the new markets. Weril, a maker of wind instruments, had never exported as much as they exported in 2004. Last year foreign sales of saxophones, trombones, tubas and other instruments to the foreign market reached 28% of company revenues, which total around US$ 2.9 million. In 2005, the forecast is for expansion of this percentage to, at least, 35%. Based in the city of Franco da Rocha, in greater São Paulo, the largest industrial area in Brazil, Weril generates around 200 direct jobs. So as to reach international recognition, in the last two years Weril invested US$ 1.1 million in technology and infrastructure. In 2002, in the United States, in a test by blindfolded musicians, the "blind test" promoted by the International Trombone Association of the United States, the G. Gagliardi trombone was elected one of the best in the world. "Each country has specific needs, but the strategy is the same for any market: showing that Weril instruments bring together the best cost/benefit relations both for those who resell and for musicians or end users, who purchase at the store," explained the commercial director of Weril, Roberto Weingrill Jr. Recognition among some foreign musicians has already started. Two players of the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra, from New York - Marcus Printup, trumpet, and Vincent Gardner, trombone - started playing exclusively Weril instruments. Pioneer Giannini, which has been producing string instruments for 104 years, has been exporting for over four decades. "Our company is a pioneer in musical instrument exports in Brazil," stated Flávio Giannini, the company marketing director. In 2004, company exports grew around 10%. Foreign sales represented 5% of revenues, which are not made public by the company. Oceania is among the new import markets. According to the director, so as to reach a target of 20% growth in the medium term, the company invests in participation in fairs like NAMM, in Los Angeles, Frankfurt Messe, in Germany, and in the Brazilian Expomusic. Giannini exports to over 20 countries, among them the United States, Canada, Italy, France, Germany, Australia and Iran. The main products traded outside the country are guitars, craviolas and ethnic instruments like cavaquinhos (similar to ukeleles) and mandolins. Sales are either direct or through representatives in Europe, South America or the United States. The company, located in the city of Salto, in the interior of the state of São Paulo, generates 400 direct jobs. Among the Brazilian musicians sponsored by Giannini are João Bosco, Toquinho, Roberto Menescal, Robson Miguel and Ulisses Rocha. National Guitars There are currently 61 musical instrument factories and 44 audio and equipment factories, makers of speakers and amplifiers. The industry's revenues reached US$ 133 million, US$ 79.3 million with audio and US$ 53.6 million with musical instruments. Contacts Abemúsica
www.abemusica.com.br Weril Instrumentos Musicais
www.weril.com.br Giannini
www.giannini.com.br ANBA – Brazil-Arab News Agency -------------------------- Advertisement: Music is universal. The language of guitars and drums is spoken all over the world. Music is even credited to help ease depression. If you've ever wanted to learn how to play a musical instrument, don't hesitate. --------------------------
 |
Subscribe to this comment's feed
The small, coastal town of Condé is located just a twenty minute's drive from João Pessoa, the capital of Paraíba. The Northeast of Brazil has historically been a place of encounter and mixing between peoples. For millenia groups of indigenous people fished, farmed, migrated and sometimes fought along this large, fertile area. 
The Brazilian diplo-MÁ-cia (bad diplomacy) carries on its accelerated course towards the non-acknowledgment of human rights, although sometimes it takes pleasure in saying that it does precisely the opposite. The visit of Iran's president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, is another example of a diplomatic omission that verges on hypocrisy. 
On July 4, 2006, representatives of Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay met in Caracas to sign the protocol for the entrance of Venezuela into the Southern Common Market (Mercosur). After two and a half years, the protocol was approved by the legislative bodies of Argentina and Uruguay, and as of now it may be only days away from being ratified by the continent's economic megalith, Brazil. 
Some sectors of the fight against AIDS have suggested that Thabo Mbeki, the former president of South Africa, committed genocide through his absence from the fight against the illness in his country throughout his two terms. 
One hundred and eleven years after Brazil abolished slavery, the number of workers deprived of their freedom is still huge. They raise cattle, produce charcoal, sugar cane or timber. Some of them, most undocumented Bolivians, work in basements of small apparel factories in São Paulo and other metropolis. 
On November 7, 2009 a few friends and I had an opportunity to take a look inside a Brazilian jail outside the city of Rio de Janeiro. We were able to take some amateur footage of our experience on video (see link below). It's no surprise, of course, that the typical Brazilian jail lacks some of the functionality of those in North America or Europe, but our experience that day was quite shocking. 
Depletion of the Amazon Rainforest is not a new concern facing environmentalists, biologists, ecologists, and a growing number of the Amazonian indigenous peoples. For decades they have feared for the fate of the world's most biologically diverse and species-rich hothouse. 
Geisy Arruda made history this week in Brazil, but for all the wrong reasons. What began as a poorly planned fashion statement has become a worldwide tale. Geisy decided to wear a pink mini-dress to her private college in São Paulo state, and after that, all hell broke loose. 
The push of vigilante groups in Rio de Janeiro's favelas (shantytowns) in the last three years is the most important and alarming information of the just-released study by the Rio de Janeiro University's Violence Research Center (Nupev-Uerj). 
A dispute over drug trafficking territory in Rio de Janeiro has intensified lately, leaving in its wake unprecedented acts of violence, such as the downing of a police helicopter in the northern zone of the city on October 17. Three policemen died and another two were injured. This event has drawn the attention of the international media, who are raising the issue of public security for the 2016 Olympics to be held in Rio.