Mabel, a traditional Brazilian biscuit manufacturer, wants to get to know the North African market better. For such, the company is going to send its foreign trade manager, Luís Carlos Pereira, on a mission that the Arab Brazilian Chamber of Commerce and the Brazilian Export and Investment Promotion Agency (Apex) are going to organise to the region late this month.

"We want to get to know the market, to know who our competitors are, to introduce our products and our company," said the foreign trade assistant at Mabel, Rebeca de Paula. The company exports to 33 countries, including Morocco and Saudi Arabia, in the Arab world. Nevertheless, this will be the company's first time attending an event in the region.

To those two countries, according to Rebeca, Mabel sells the equivalent of US$ 100,000 per year. In total, exports answer to 7% of the company's annual revenues, which amount to 200 million Brazilian reais (US$ 98.6 million). Besides Morocco, the Brazilian delegation will travel to Tunisia and Egypt.

The company manufactures various types of sweet and savoury biscuits, hard sweets, powdered juice, and snacks. "Our production is large, we are capable of meeting orders from the foreign market in 20 days. Just one of our factories, in the city of Aparecida de Goiânia, in the midwestern Brazilian state of Goiás, has 4,000 employees and works 24 hours a day," Rebeca said.

In addition to the headquarters in Goiás, Mabel owns four other industrial plants in the states of Rio de Janeiro (SE), Santa Catarina (S), Sergipe (NE) and Mato Grosso (MW). That is, the company is present in virtually all regions in the country, except for the northern region.

According to Rebeca, in addition to the brands created by the company itself, Mabel can also develop new brands for specific markets, or supply products to be sold under the brands of importers. "Our product is made for export, with labels in English and in Spanish, and in the case of Saudi Arabia, with a label in Arabic," Rebeca claimed.

The company, which was established 53 years ago, also exports to the United States, Latin America, the Caribbean, African countries, and other destinations.

(Published by ANBA, May 9, 2007)