The Arab Brazilian Chamber of Commerce is participating in the International Ethanol Workshop today, January 23, in Khartoum, the capital of Sudan.
The meeting is promoted by the ministries of Industry and of Energy and Mining of the Arab country and will include the participation of two representatives of the Brazilian organization, the coordinator of operations, Rodrigo Solano, and the Market Development analyst, Jean Gonçalves da Silva.
The Chamber was invited to participate in the seminar by Kenana Sugar Company, the largest company in the sugar and alcohol sector in Sudan.
Kenana belongs to the governments of Sudan, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and to private investors. The company also has plans to produce ethanol, a product in which Brazil dominates the technology.
Representatives of Kenana have already been in the country many times to learn more about the national production of alcohol and to seek Brazilian partners to operate in the sector in Sudan. Last year, executives of the company participated in an international seminar about ethanol, in São Paulo.
At the Sudan seminar, according to the secretary general at the Arab Brazilian Chamber of Commerce, Michel Alaby, it will be possible to learn more about Sudanese projects in the area and to check the possibility of supplying Brazilian equipment for the production of ethanol.
According to Alaby, the Sudanese are interested in Brazilian equipment and technology for alcohol production. As is the case with Brazil, Sudan is a producer of sugarcane, the raw material from which the product is made.
Brazil is the largest world producer of alcohol. In the current sugarcane crop, 2006/2007, the country should produce 17.4 billion liters of alcohol, of which 3.1 billion should be exported, according to forecasts by the São Paulo Sugar Cane Agroindustry Union (Unica).
This production will be the result of a harvest of 425 million tons of sugarcane, which will be picked in April. By the 2012/2013 crop, Brazil should be exporting seven billion liters of ethanol, due to investment that the sector is due to receive. This harvest alone, 12 new mills should be opened in Brazil, and in the next, another 16.
The Arab Brazilian Chamber representatives are in Khartoum to participate in Khartoum International Fair, to begin on Wednesday, January 24, in the capital of the Arab country, and to end on February 2.
The Arab Brazilian Chamber will have a 32 square-meter stand at the fair, in which the organization will provide information about the Brazilian production.
The organization took to the fair catalogues of various companies interested in entering the Sudanese market. The country, which is in Africa, imported last year a total of US$ 7.2 billion in products.
In the period, Brazil had revenues of US$ 79.7 million with exports to Sudan. The value presented a significant increase of 15% over the US$ 69.3 million of 2005.
Among the main products sold were bulk sugar, chassis and tractors. The global trade between both countries was US$ 79.85 million in 2006. Sudan exports little to Brazil: US$ 81,400 last year.
Anba – www.anba.com.br
