Slaughterhouse Seeks Expansion On Arab Market
BRAZIL - Slaughterhouse Mondelli started exporting to the Arab countries over ten years ago. Yesterday, its clients in the Middle East and North Africa represent 55 per cent of company exports, mainly to selected clients. The company aims to use this strategy to increase foreign sales while maintaining profitability.
18 April 2011
2 minute read
"We work with clients that operate in a higher-priced market," said Gustavo Goyen, Operations director at Mondelli. "This way, we may transfer this value to our farmers," he explained. Mondelli produces mainly beef.
According to Mr Goyen, Mondelli operates mostly in supermarkets and with distributors. "We like working with supermarkets. It is a way to remain close to customers and to analyse the acceptance of our meats," he explained.
In the Middle East, Mondelli has clients in Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Lebanon. In North Africa, the company supplies Egypt, Algeria and Libya. The slaughterhouse turns 20 per cent of the 22,000 tonnes of beef it produces each year to the international market. Apart from the Arab market, the company also has clients in Germany, Italy, France, the Netherlands, Russia, Hong Kong and Singapore.
Currently, Saudi Arabia is the main foreign market for Mondelli. "But I believe that the Emirates will exceed Saudi imports," said Mr Goyen. As an example, he mentioned a client in the Emirates that has ten supermarkets and should open 15 new units. "That should double demand," he said.
For four years, the company has been participating in Gulfood, the largest food sector fair in the Middle East, which takes place in Dubai. "We always close good deals at the fair," said the director of the slaughterhouse. Mr Goyen pointed out that, in the last edition, between 27 February and 2 March, the company got "six new clients with price potential and important volumes."
According to the Operations director, the Arab market is strategic to the slaughterhouse's business. "Arab countries are showing great evolution in volume and quality (of beef purchased). There is space for development in the region with competitive prices and volume. We are a slaughterhouse that is highly connected to the Arab market," he emphasized. He also reveals that, for 2012, the company plans growth of 10 to 20 per cent in total exports and that the Arabs should accompany this percentage.
Mr Goyen does not state the slaughterhouse's revenues, but says that Mondelli is a medium-sized company. With an industrial unit in the city of Bauru, in the interior of São Paulo, Modelli was established in 1978 and employs 600 collaborators.
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