Luiz Roberto, Director of Agricola Famosa, President of Abrafrutas.
“The local market has been very good during the last five years,” said Luiz Roberto, director of Agricola Famosa and President of Abrafrutas, the new exporter trade association. “Brazilians are getting better salaries and they're eating more fruit, but we don't know how the financial situation will be in the future, so we must have the export market as well.” The 31 export companies that make up Abrafrutas represent about 80 percent of the country's exporters, and Luiz Roberto said he's working hard to make sure those exporters have the government support they need to grow.
“We felt we needed a strong representative association,” said Luiz Roberto, “We have a promoting export agency and they have a lot of money to promote Brazilian products, but we have no money for fresh fruit. Now we can ask them for support to promote fresh fruit.”
In the long run, Luiz Roberto said they'd like to help professionalize local growers and get them to think about social responsibility and the environment. In addition to being better for growers and the country, it would make it much easier to acquire fresh produce that's ready for export. But acknowledging that's a very long-term goal, Luiz Roberto is more focused on simply increasing the amount of fruit the country exports.
“One of our targets is to double the amount of fruit we export in the next five years,” said Luiz Roberto. “In the first place, we'd just like to promote exports.”
For more information:
Luiz Roberto
Abrafrutas Brazil
Mobile: + 55 85 9199 9415
Email: luizbarcelos@agrfamosa.com.br