São Paulo – Agrícola Famosa will start shipping its current fruit crop to the Arab countries in September. The company is based in Icapuí, in Brazil’s Ceará state, and sells approximately ten containers a week to Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. “This is the third crop we sell to these countries,” says company partner Luiz Roberto Barcelos. The enterprise sells mostly melon and watermelon.
Sales to the Middle East still pale in comparison to Agrícola Famosa’s total weekly export volume, which is 300 containers. But Barcelos believes in the market’s potential. “We are new to this market, but it holds great promise, what with its hot weather and widespread consumption of the fruits we sell,” says Barcelos regarding melons and watermelons, more widely consumed in high temperature places.
The company first entered the Arab market by taking part in overseas promotion programs of the Brazilian Export and Investment Promotion Agency (Apex-Brasil) and via a trader in Holland who occasionally sold Agrícola Famosa fruit to the Arab countries. Barcelos believes exports to Arabs can increase to thirty 40-foot containers a week within five years.
Presently, Agrícola Famosa’s premier foreign destination is Europe, which accounts for over 90% of sales. The company sells to England, Holland and Spain. Annual output is roughly 150,000 tonnes of fruit and approximately 60% is shipped abroad. Barcelos and the company’s other founding partner, Carlo Borro, both have backgrounds in trading companies. The company currently has two other partners, Richard Müller and Marconi Lima.
Large business
Agrícola Famosa was founded in 1995 and began exporting in 2000. The company owns eight farms in the states of Ceará and Rio Grande do Norte, and only sells its own production. Its farmed area spans 8,000 hectares, of which 70% are in Ceará and 30% are in Rio Grande do Norte. Of these, 7,000 hectares are used for growing watermelon and melon. The company is also diversifying and investing in banana, papaya, passion fruit, pineapple, plus the vegetable asparagus.
The company is known for the fruit production technology it employs. Its harvesting techniques include dripping irrigation, nutrient-enhanced irrigation (rather than just water) and biological pest control with reduced usage of agrochemicals. During processing, the Brix system measures the rate of sugar the fruits contain. In order to be packaged, fruits must contain at least ten degrees Brix of sugar. The company also offers a Premium line with 12 degrees Brix.
Agrícola Famosa
Telephone: (+55 85) 33245038
Website: www.agricolafamosa.com.br
*Translated by Gabriel Pomerancblum
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