Owner of the Guritos snack and biscuit factory, located in Paraná, businessman Elias Voltatone fondly remembers the difficulties he faced in building his company. Since 1995, when he started industrialization and filled a kombi with products to sell in the city of Nova Esperança and in the region of Maringá, until today, in Paraguay, where he was participating in the PEIEX Paraguay and Bolivia Mission, carried out by the Brazilian Export Promotion Agency and Investments (Apex-Brasil), a lot has changed, the company has grown and now it is looking for new consumers in the neighboring country.
"We were introduced to the Export Qualification Program (PEIEX) when the Maringá operational center was inaugurated. We have been part of the program since 2012 and have implemented many improvements since that time, such as packaging, which give our product greater quality. Our current goal is to enter in Mercosur, starting with Paraguay ".
Elias is right to bet on the Paraguayan market: in Asunción and its metropolitan area alone, there are more than two million potential consumers. Brazilian Ambassador Carlos Alberto Simas Magalhães corroborates this potential: "The Paraguayan economy has grown an average of 4% per year consistently over the past decade. This mission is particularly important to spread Brazilian export capacity beyond our large companies".
Head of the Trade Promotion Sector at the Brazilian Embassy in Asunción, Luiz Fellipe Schmidt reveals that from 2014 to 2016 the consultation of Brazilian businessmen on the Paraguayan market increased from 214 to 966, a jump of 400% in just two years. "We are building a database for the Brazilian exporter and our synergy with Apex-Brasil has strengthened the Brazilian commercial promotion", details Schmidt.
The agenda of the PEIEX Paraguay and Bolivia Mission, in which Voltone participates, included a seminar attended not only by the Brazilian Embassy in Asunción, but also by entities such as the Brazil-Paraguay Chamber of Commerce, Paraguayan Central Bank, Red de Inversiones y Exportaciones (Rediex - Apex-Brasil do Paraguay) and the Secretariat for Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises of the Ministry of Finance of the neighboring country. All pointed to the consistency of the Paraguayan market as an attractive asset for the country.
A Brazilian living in Paraguay for over a decade, the Commercial Manager of Distribuidora Dirigida, Luciano Simón, received the Brazilian delegation for a technical visit and reinforced the potential of the neighboring nation.
"We started the company with seven employees and today we already have 180. We only bring more than 25 tons of lactose-free cheeses produced in Brazil and we see many niche markets, especially for industrialized products in the beverage, food, hygiene and cosmetics sectors. But we know that there is also a lot of space in agribusiness and machinery in general ", he indicates.
Entrepreneur Breno Seibt, from Seibt, already has clients in both Paraguay and Bolivia. He reveals that his company, founded by his father in the 1970s, has always been aimed at the international market because his father was an export manager for a company and left it to open his own business. Seibt produces machines for post-industrial and post-use plastic recycling, offering solutions for industries that use plastic as a raw material, and has customers of the size of Tigre, Amanco and Copobrás.
Seibt has had a relationship with Apex-Brasil since 1999. "We have been participating in PEIEX for many years and decided to re-train ourselves to improve the business. The Program helped us a lot by changing the strategic view on exports, which led us to register our brand. This was fundamental for exports ", explains Seibt. Exports currently represent about 10% of the company's revenue, but the entrepreneur's intention is to raise this level to almost 30% achieved in 2016. "We are in Paraguay to expand our business, we cannot stop", says Seibt.
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Source: Apex-Brasil
