Brazil-Arab News Agency

São Paulo – Brazilian exports of tobacco to the Arab market grew 12% from January to November this year, compared with the same period of 2008. According to data from the Foreign Trade Secretariat (Secex), of the Brazilian Ministry of Development, Industry and Foreign Trade, Brazil obtained US$ 117.1 million in revenues from sales to the Arabs in the first eleven months of this year, as against US$ 103.9 million in the same period of last year.

The figure includes sales of non-manufactured tobacco, tobacco cigarettes and tobacco waste. The latter two, though, accounted for a small share of exports, whereas non-manufactured tobacco represented nearly the totality. According to secretary general of the Arab Brazilian Chamber of Commerce, Michel Alaby, the Arab countries, especially Egypt and Yemen, have a tobacco industry, and that is why they import non-manufactured tobacco.

The leading buyer of Brazilian tobacco this year was Egypt, according to figures of the Ministry of Development. The Arab country spent US$ 56.8 million on imports of the product. Other countries that bought Brazilian tobacco up until November 2009 were the United Arab Emirates, Morocco, Sudan, Yemen, Tunisia, Algeria, Djibouti, Libya, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia and Mauritania.

According to information supplied by the Brazilian Tobacco Industry Association (Abifumo), Brazil is the leading tobacco exporting country in the world, and the second largest producer. Farming concentrates in the South of the country, in the states of Santa Catarina, Rio Grande do Sul and Paraná. This year, exports to the Arab world originated almost entirely from Rio Grande do Sul. Together, the three southern states account for 95% of national production, which totalled 730,000 tonnes in last year’s crop.

*Translated by Gabriel Pomerancblum