While on the trip, the Minister will visit four Arab countries: Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates, meeting with government and food businesses from the region.
In 2018, Brazil's agricultural exports to 22 Arab countries and members of the Organization for Islamic Cooperation, totalling 55 nations, totalled US$16.1bn, representing 19% of total foreign sales of Brazilian agriculture, a percentage higher than which was exported to the European Union.
Of this, meat was one of the top five products exported from Brazil to the Middle East. The region also imported the equivalent of US$114bn of food in 2017, with chicken and beef both high up on the list.
According to MAPA research, beef and chicken scored high in the list of products exported by Brazil to the four countries being visited by the Minister.
Minister Tereza Cristina said that the four Arab countries have been established as one of Brazil's main trading partners but there are business opportunities throughout the supply chain such as inputs, machinery, processing, storage, distribution, transportation, research, technology and innovation.
The Minister added that Brazilian producers are familiar with the demands of the Arab markets, and that their consumers already know the quality of Brazilian products, noting that Brazil is the world's largest exporter of halal protein.
"Brazil is able to expand the supply of various agricultural products already imported by the Arab League, but which still has very little representation in the Brazilian export agenda to its countries,” she said.