São Paulo – The Group Pioneiro, a food company from Paraná, plans on increasing the number of chickens slaughtered from the current 140,000 fowls per day to 160,000 fowls until July and part of this additional volume should go to the Arab world. The company currently exports to Bahrain, Qatar, Oman, Kuwait, United Arab Emirates, Jordan and Iraq in the Middle East and since the beginning of the sales, in 2010, they have already grown 25%.
The information is from the person in charge of Middle East exports at Pioneiro, Ilonka Eijsink. According to her, the foreign market takes 10% of the total produced by the company and the Middle East is the third largest market for Pioneiro. The first is Japan and the second is Hong Kong. Abroad, the company sells chicken parts. Domestically they also commercialize whole weighed and processed chickens.
“As we are increasing the number of slaughtered fowls, we are also increasing the exports to these countries,” says Eijsink about the Middle East. According to her, there is a demand from the Arab countries and the possibility to export more to them if the product is available. She recalls that, except for Saudi Arabia, which produces poultry, the remaining countries from the Middle East import all they consume in this area.
Eijsink sees the demand increasing in the region, with levels similar to the ones from before the economic crisis of 2008. She claims that in Dubai, for instance, construction projects are a good signal to the market, and they have recovered from the crisis, with lots of projects targeted at Expo 2020, the global fair which will be held in Dubai in 2020 lasting six months.
With the construction sector rekindled, the emirate starts to receive more foreign workers, from Europe and India, increasing food consumption. Eijsink also says that large supermarket chains are expanding in the region, which is considered a good sign for the sector in which Group Pioneiro operates. The company has taken part in the Gulfood, a food sector fair held annually in Dubai, for eight years.
Al Mana
Pioneiro, besides being the group’s name, is also the brand’s name for poultry commercialized on the Brazilian market. The processed product brand is Mana, which is also the brand used for all the products in the foreign market. In the Middle East, however, the company uses the name Al Mana. “The objective is to show respect for their religion and also to show we have a product blessed by God, by Allah, food from heavens”.
Maná (Manna) is the name of the food which, according to the biblical books, God sent from heaven to the people led by Moses who were in search of the Promised Land through the desert. Moses is considered a prophet by the Islamism. According to Eijsink, the brand Al Mana is well received in the Arab world.
The Group Pioneiro is headquartered in the city of Joaquim Távora. The company has two units, one in which the fowls are slaughtered and processed and the other where baloney and sausage are processed. All the exported chicken parts are frozen.
Group Pioneiro
Website: http://www.manafoods.com.br/ (Mana’s website, in English)
Telephone: (+5543) 3559 8000
*Translated by Rodrigo Mendonça
