Importers from Germany, Austria, Colombia and England are in Brazil at the invitation of the Brazilian Textile and Apparel Industry Association (Abit), through Texbrasil, an export incentive program promoted in partnership with the Brazilian Export and Investment Promotion Agency (Apex-Brasil).
They have come to participate in the Minas Trend Preview Business Salon, an event launched November 11 in Belo Horizonte, in the southeastern state of Minas Gerais. Buyers are going to be able to learn about 135 Brazilian garment brands, shoes, jewelry and costume jewelry. The event goes on up to Saturday, November 15, at the Alphaville Lagoa dos Ingleses.
Among the international buyers is the Lebanese Khaled Mekkawi, from company K&Mak, which has shops in Dubai and Kuwait. The retailer, who already imports and exports from Brazil, is seeking clothes, accessories and female shoes.
In June, Mekkawi was in Brazil to participate in the fashion shows of 30 Brazilian garment and shoe brands, promoted by the Brazilian Clothing Designers Association (Abest).
The businessman, who has been working in the Middle Eastern market for six years, trades over 120 brands, among them the Brazilian Cecília Prado. Apart from clothes, K&Mak is also a distributor of Revlon Cosmetics for the North of Africa, Turkey, Syria, Lebanon and Jordan.
The third edition of Minas Trend Preview is promoted by the Federation of Industries of the State of Minas Gerais (Fiemg) and is going to present the tendencies of the autumn/winter collection in 2009. In total, investment in the event reached 5.5 million Brazilian reais (US$ 2.5 million) in the event, to include parades, talks and workshops about the consumer market and 2009/2010 winter tendencies.
From January to September, the trade balance of the Brazilian textile chain posted a deficit of US$ 1.21 billion, against a negative result of US$ 350 million in the same period last year. According to figures supplied by the Abit, the worsening of the results is due to greater Brazilian imports, due to the appreciation of the Brazilian real against the dollar, up to August. Anyhow, the organization believes that Brazil has potential to increase exports and accelerate the necessary changes for sustainable growth.
With regard to Minas Gerais, from January to September, sector exports totaled US$ 136 million, against US$ 131 million in imported products. According to the Abit, the figures show the state is in the sixth position among the Brazilian states that import most and in the fifth position among the main exporters.
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