MUSCAT: The Sultanate of Oman wants to expand mutual trade and investments with Brazil. The minister of Industry and Trade of the Gulf nation, Ali Al Sunaidy, said this Wednesday (3) in São Paulo that his country plans to develop five sectors that are considered priorities in the next five years and to do so it needs to guarantee the supply of its production chain and place its products in the global market.
“We have, for instance, a deficit of meat, especially, white meat, and we want to see if we can invest in this area”, he said at the opening of the business matchmaking between Brazilian and Omani companies at the Arab Brazilian Chamber of Commerce. Sunaidy is in Brazil together with business owners and representatives of government bodies from the Arab country.
The five priority sectors are processing of basic goods or semi-finished products – with an emphasis on the food industry, tourism, mining, logistics, fisheries and aquaculture.
In the case of poultry, Sunaidy said that Oman produces only 25% of what it consumes, but it wants to increase this percentage to 70% in the future, therefore the country wants to attract Brazilian companies to establish themselves there and process or distribute food. “But we will never be self-sufficient”, said Sunaidy in an interview to ANBA, making it clear that the country will always offer a market for imported products.
The poultry example also holds true for the food industry in general. Omanis are also interested in investing in Brazilian production, expanding imports and becoming familiar with Brazilian technology in the area.
“We have scant water resources”, said the minister in his interview to ANBA. In this sense, there’s a concern in guaranteeing the food security of the population. Other products that Oman has a need to import and plans to negotiate in Brazil are maize, soy, wheat, barley and animal feed.
