|
 Paraná, in the Brazilian South, one of the leading Brazilian forestry industry manufacturers and exporters, is eyeing the Arab market. Whereas sales of plywood, sawed wood, doors, frames, and chipboard and MDF sheets from Brazil to Middle East and North Africa grew 59.5% between 2006 and 2007, shipments from the state of Paraná rose 68.6% during the period.
Two years ago, the state sold a total of US$ 22.6 million to the region (60% of all Brazilian exports in the segment); last year, it posted revenues of US$ 38.1 million (63.2% of total Brazilian exports).
To Antônio Rubens Camilotti, president at the Brazilian Plywood Industry and Exporters Association (Abimci), high product quality and good relations with the Arabs contribute to the growth of exports, not just from Paraná, but from Brazil as a whole, to the region. In 2006, sales of wood to the Arab market resulted in export revenues of US$ 37.8 million. Last year, the figure increased to US$ 60.3 million.
Camilotti acknowledges that in recent years, Brazil has lost market share among the Arabs. The Chinese, Hindi and Indonesian manufacturers have an edge over the Brazilian: logistics. As they are located closer to the target market, especially to the Middle East, their goods become cheaper.
And Arab builders often hire European architects, which favor wood item manufacturers based nearer the areas of consumption. Another factor is tax losses generated by the depreciation of the dollar against the Brazilian currency, the real, which reduce revenues for exporters.
The Arab consumer market, however, is expanding. The growth of the regional economy and the widespread rise in income prompted by high oil prices, are causing demand to grow.
"Generally speaking, exception made to the United States, markets are still heated up. In Saudi Arabia, for instance, construction of commercial buildings and infrastructure works are driving up the demand," says Luiz Carlos Reis de Toledo Barros, of Brazilian Best Woods (BBW), a company that represents Brazilian wood industry companies abroad.
Furthermore, Camilotti believes that the sizeable Arab colony living in Brazil favors business relations with the other side of the Atlantic. He has been receiving many inquiries from countries in the region, such as Lebanon.
Also, if the Middle East is farther, the North African countries are less distant, which reduces the obstacle posed by the logistic issue. In 2007, Morocco was the leading Arab consumer of plywood, sawed wood, doors, frames, and chipboard and MDF sheets from Brazil: US$ 21 million. Saudi Arabia ranked second, at US$ 11.2 million, and the United Arab Emirates ranked third, at US$ 10.1 million.
Overall forestry industry figures reveal the strength of Paraná in the sector: it exported the equivalent to US$ 1.49 billion in 2007, of which wood alone answered to US$ 1.03 billion. The state is the second largest exporter in the country, second only to the state of São Paulo (SE Brazil). Santa Catarina (S) ranks third. The sector has many branches, involving not only wood and furniture, but also pulp and paper, among other products.
As for pine plywood, figures supplied by the Abimci show that, whereas in 2006 Paraná exported US$ 324.1 million, in 2007 the figure rose to US$ 338.8 million, representing growth of 4.5%.
Sawed pinewood ranked second, with sales of US$ 131.8 million in 2006 and US$ 111.8 million in 2007. In a comparison between the first quarter of 2007 and 2008, pine plywood also leads sales from Paraná, having grown from one year to the other.
From January to March 2007, exports totaled US$ 68 million. In 2008, during the same period, sales stood at US$ 115.5 million, expansion of 70%.
Omar Nasser works for the Fiep (Federation of Industries of the State of Paraná).
 |
Subscribe to this comment's feed
Brazil received a huge boost in its international image with its selection as the host of the 2016 Olympics, but it was really just the cherry on top of the overall recognition of the country's ascension to the ranks of one of the world's most important countries. Now, as it finally takes its place on the world scene, there has been a great deal of concern about what kind of image Brazil hopes to project, now that the world is really paying attention. 
The only good thing to say about the visit to Brazil of Iran's president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, on Monday November 23, is that it was mercifully short and lasted less than 24 hours. Ahmadinejad had his picture taken being hugged by president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva who gave him a warm welcome and said Iran had every right to develop nuclear energy for peaceful purposes. 
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.
Of course as per your own stats, most deforestation is made by foreigners.