Brazil's trade surplus with Arab countries in January 2020 went up 51.82 per cent to $624.15 million, compared to the same month in the previous year, said an Arab-Brazilian Chamber of Commerce (ABCC) report.

Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and the UAE remained the top importers of Brazilian goods during the first month of the year. Brazil’s trade balance with Saudi Arabia amounted to $131.32 million, which represented 208,590 tonnes of goods.

The country’s trade balance with Egypt and the UAE were $111.16 million (471,850 tonnes) and $92.26 million (40,330 tonnes), respectively.

Rubens Hannun, president of ABCC, said: “The numbers proved once again the growing trade ties and unwavering confidence between the Arab region and Brazil. This trust was also clearly evident at a time when the Arab countries supported the demand and maintained their loyalty to their Brazilian partners.”

“We are eager to see both parties collaborating closely in the coming months to further strengthen and build more productive and mutually beneficial trade relations according to their respective growth agendas. The year 2020 started good and we expect the trend to further gain momentum,” he added.

Sugar, chicken meat, iron and coffee were the top exported products to the Arab countries during the first month of 2020. A separate report issued by the Brazilian Coffee Exporters Council (Cecafé) showed that the volume of Brazilian coffee exported to the Arab states in January this year reached 121,700 60-kg bags, up 29.1 per cent from a year ago.

The same report also stated that the revenue surged 20.17 per cent year-on-year to reach $13.7 million. Cecafé specifically cited the UAE’s imports of Brazilian coffee. The growth rate per year from 2013 to 2019 was at 6.2 per cent, with the Arab country buying 139,866 60-kg bags of Brazilian coffee in 2019 alone.

In 2019, the Arab world was announced to be the third largest destination of Brazilian exports after China and the US. It was the fifth largest international buyer of Brazil goods, with imports reaching $11.4 billion in 2018.

The region’s imports of Brazilian goods reached $12.1 billion in 2019, climbing by 6.3 per cent from a year before, it stated. – TradeArabia News Service