Argentine trade mission in southern Brazil

In the context of the Argentine Foreign Ministry’s ongoing actions in various Brazilian states in order to increase and diversify trade and investment with Brazil, a Multi-sectoral Mission was held in Porto Alegre, the capital of Rio Grande do Sul, which included business rounds, sectoral meetings and visits to Brazilian counterparts.

60 businesspersons from Buenos Aires, Entre Ríos, Córdoba, Santa Fe, Mendoza, the City of Buenos Aires, Corrientes, Chaco, San Juan, Río Negro, Catamarca and Misiones participated in the event and had more than 450 business meetings with their Brazilian counterparts.

The Undersecretariat for Trade Promotion and Investment Development of the Argentine Foreign Ministry, the Argentine Embassy in Brazil and the Argentine Consulate in Porto Alegre developed contacts and business intelligence work to detect market niches and sectors with potential, and organized this mission based on these results.

Marcelo Lucco, Undersecretary for Trade Promotion and Investment Development, stated: “From a trade and investment viewpoint, some Brazilian states—because of their size, potential and specific features—are more relevant to Argentine SMEs and regional economies than many countries. We have been working on this federalization strategy with Ambassador Magariños, and we were not wrong: more than 60 Argentine companies with strong productive and geographic diversity participated in this activity, and the results are very encouraging, so we will continue working in other states.”

Some of the participants are companies in the industries of food, vineyards, agricultural machinery, metallurgy, pharmaceutics and auto parts, which were joined by authorities from Entre Ríos, Córdoba and Mendoza. In 2015, even within an unfavourable general context in Brazil, Rio Grande do Sul received a greater amount of Argentine exports than most Latin American and European countries.

In addition to business rounds and visits to local companies, important official work meetings were held with large international business groups from Rio Grande do Sul such as MARCOPOLO, TRAMONTINA, STARA and RANDON to make progress on investments and integration into value chains.

Brazilian company SPHEROS, a manufacturer of bus air conditioning equipment based in Caxias do Sul, announced its decision to set up a manufacturing plant in Argentina in 2018. At the request of SPHEROS, the Argentine Foreign Ministry will meet over the next few weeks with potential Argentine input suppliers for the new plant, which could supply sheet metal and steel sheet cuts, aluminium, fixings and insulating foam glass.

STARA, a leading Brazilian agricultural machinery group, announced its arrival in Argentina with an ambitious investment plan in 2018. The initial stage provides for an investment of 190 million pesos and for supplementing existing production activities in Brazil with future production in Argentina, manufacturing and acquiring components from Argentine companies.

According to a preliminary survey, several participating companies achieved positive commercial results. The following examples are noteworthy:

·         FIDEICOMISO PROYECTO NOGAL (an olive oil, nut, almond, grape, raisin and olive manufacturing company from Catamarca) received two requests for quotes. MOLINOS DEL CARMEN SRL (a family-owned wheat flour manufacturing company from Entre Ríos) received a request for a quote and made progress with a company in the bioethanol business to provide wheat milling residue and wheat waste in large quantities, for which purpose it will seek to partner up with other Argentine companies from the sector to reach the required volume.

·         PVC TECNOCOM (a Buenos Aires-based PVC component and PVC raw materials manufacturing company) received a request for a quote.

·         ISOLA ASTI (a San Juan-based wholesale supplier of olives) successfully resumed contact with a former client, from which it has already received a request for a quote to resume exports.

·         ANGEL PERIS (an iron industry equipment company from Santa Fe) received a proposal from TRAMONTINA for ANGEL PERIS to develop a customized melting burner; in addition, ROTAMIL proposed a partnership agreement to offer its products and technical assistance services locally.

·         STAMPI SANGUINETI (a Buenos Aires-based precision matrix and mould company) made progress on negotiations with IAT PANDROL to integrate a value chain in the production of track ballast.

·         SAN IGNACIO (a dairy producer of dulce de leche and blue cheese from Buenos Aires) entered into negotiations with supermarket chain ZAFARI, a leader in the region, to sell SAN IGNACIO’s dulce de leche, which will compete with the Uruguayan product that is currently the local market leader.

Press release No. 419/16.

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