Brazil dessert firm seeks GCC distributors
The company is seeking to enter the UAE, Qatar and Kuwait markets, and also wants to grow its business in Saudi Arabia, and a representative from Mr Bey will visit its target countries in August. The expansion plans follow what the company says was a successful experience at last year’s Gulfood exhibition.
Export production boost
“We made good contacts at Gulfood. We are going for those countries because they were the ones we had the most visitors from. Our focus on this trip is in finding distributors,” said Otacílio Prior, export consultant at Mr Bey.
“Our client is a chocolate store chain called Anoosh, in Riyadh. They are a very major company with ties to the royal family. They also have distributors, and we want to check if they can distribute our products,” he added.
Mr Bey aims to boost its export sales to up to 25% of its production, up from the current level of 3%. The firm’s main export markets at the moment are the United States, but it expects to develop its Middle East sales significantly, and has joined the Arab-Brazilian Chamber of Commerce to help facilitate this.
More export products
Currently the firm’s main export to the region is its petit gateau, also known as chocolate fondant, which is Halal certified – Prior claims Mr Bey is the petit gateau market leader in Brazil. The company has a total portfolio of around 60 products, and is planning to make a larger selection of these available for export markets.
“We are trying to get six or seven other products cleared [for export],” said Prior, adding that this process will include making the products Halal-certified. “At Gulfood, we realised that if we were going to sell to other countries in that region, we’d need to go Halal.”
Mr Bey currently produces around 100 tonnes of dessert products a month, with a workforce of 250. The company was formed in 2005, with the merger of Alibey Special Foods, which specialised in Arabic-style dry curd products, and Dutch & Co, a dessert-maker.
