Ricaeli, a food producer from Cabreúva, in the interior of the state of São Paulo, exports mashed fruit to the United Arab Emirates and is getting ready to place its products on the market and expand its presence in the region.
According to the import and export manager, Gilmar Ailton Miranda, in about two months’ time the company should also start shipping açaí and guaraná sorbet to the Emirates. “Our objective is to focus more on the market there and also to promote our products in other countries,” said Miranda.
In the Emirates, Ricaeli is represented by Al Khail Al Arabi General Trading, which belongs to a local businessman and to the Brazilian Luis Pires. It was actually through contact with Pires that another company from Cabreúva started selling to the Arab country, some two years ago.
And it is Al Khail Al Arabi, from Dubai, that should take the Ricaeli products to the remaining Arab countries. The packages of products sold in the region contain information in Arabic and English.
Currently, according to Miranda, the mashed fruit most sold in the Emirates is passion fruit, acerola and guava. The products are sold mainly in supermarkets. Miranda believes, however, that among the Arabs, açaí sorbet may have greater demand than the mashed fruit.
“The ice cream market there is very large,” he said. The product should be sold in supermarkets and snack bars, in 3.6 kg, one kilogram and 120 gram packages, the latter with a bag of granola.
Ricaeli is also getting ready, together with the Brazilian Mais Fruta, to put on the market a fruit cocktail. The product, to start being sold in Brazil this month, does not need blending, and may have an alcoholic beverage added to it, or only water. Miranda also aims to take the product to the Arab world and believes that he has good chances in the market.
Apart from the Emirates, Ricaeli exports to Europe and the United States. These two were the regions through which the company entered the foreign market, some eight years ago.
Foreign sales, however, represent just 2% of the factory’s production. According to Miranda, that takes place due to the high demand there is in Brazil, where Ricaeli supplies great producers of food. In company exports, the Emirates represent 30% of the total.
Cabreúva: 200 Employees
Ricaeli was established 25 years ago and is a family business. The company founder, Mario Simohada, started the business when he was a strawberry producer. In the beginning he supplied just the yogurt industry with mashed strawberry. Today, the list of clients ranges from supermarkets to the juice, yogurt, scent and jam producers, as well as snack bars and supermarkets.
The product line includes 32 flavors of mashed fruit, traded in forms ranging from 180 kilogram drums to 100 gram packages, as well as cheese bread, vegetables and açaí, among others. Cheese bread production, for example, is outsourced, but the products reach consumers under the Ricaeli brand.
The factory’s production is developed in a unit in Cabreúva, which employs 200 people. Cultivation of fruit is not developed by the company, and it even imports some.
