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Romania-Brazil trade fluctuates around 700-750 million dollars in recent years
Bilateral trade between Romania and Brazil has fluctuated around 700-750 million dollars in recent years, with Brazil being Romania's main trade partner in South America, the Brazilian ambassador to Romania, Ricardo Guerra de Araujo said on Wednesday.
"Bilateral trade has fluctuated around the value of 700-750 million dollars in recent years, a figure obtained from Brazilian sources, Brazil being Romania's main trading partner in South America. This number, of course, does not yet reflect the entire potential of Brazilian-Romanian trade relations. Just to give you an idea, the total trade between Romania and Latin America is about 1.5 billion dollars, which is still very, very low," said Ricardo Guerra de Araujo.
He participated in the first "Romania-Brazil Business Forum" on Wednesday, organized by the Brazilian Embassy in Bucharest, in partnership with the Bucharest Chamber of Commerce and Industry (CCIB).
The diplomat emphasized that Brazil is the largest country in South America, and Romania is among the top ten countries in the European Union in terms of size and population and is the 12th largest economy in the EU. However, according to the National Institute of Statistics, Romania's trade with Brazil in 2023 represented only 1.65% of Romania's trade with countries outside Europe and less than 1% of trade with countries outside the European Union, the Brazilian ambassador mentioned.
He specified that Romania imports raw materials and semi-finished products from Brazil, especially soybean residues (used as animal feed), sugar, crude oil, coffee, tobacco, beef and construction materials.
In this context, the Brazilian ambassador emphasized that the first trains from a contract of 13 trains for Bucharest metro arrive in Romania this year.
As to investments, the diplomat mentioned the presence on the Romanian market, since 2010, of one of the largest Brazilian IT companies, the Stefanini Group. In addition, on the local market there are around 70 small companies managed mainly by members of the Brazilian community in Romania in various fields, such as IT, trade, construction, building materials, consulting, car repair, fitness, real estate, bars, restaurants.
For its part, Romania has a strong presence in the Brazilian IT sector, through the internationally known software company Bitdefender, among others. Also, said Ricardo Guerra de Araujo, there are also significant Romanian investments in the beverage sector, such as the Alexandrion Group.
The diplomat also referred to fields of cooperation in which Romania and Brazil are well-known for their expertise, such as information technology, cyber security and related fields, as well as biodiesel or food processing.
În turn, CCIB Chairman Iuliu Stocklosa said on Wednesday: "The organisation of this event [Brazil-Romania Business Forum] is a happy combination of the desire of the Embassy of the Federative Republic of Brazil in Romania to promote and stimulate mutual trade and investment between the two countries under the programme of our chamber that offers new business opportunities to its members, companies, companies in Bucharest and, in general, to the business community of Romania. We consider this event part of the series of meetings of our Chamber "Business Opportunities Day", dedicating this day to promoting trade and economic co-operation between Romania and Brazil," Stocklosa told the first edition of the Romania-
At the same time, he pointed out that operating in Bucharest are 23% of the active traders registered in Romania, almost 30% of the sales area and retail sales at national level, 21% of domestic exports and 33% of the value of imports made by Romania.
Also operating in the city are 44.2% of the foreign-owned companies registered in Romania and about 60% of the country's scientific research activity, providing about 25% of Romania's gross domestic product
According to the National Institute of Statistics (INS), trade with Brazil accounted last year for only 1.65% of Romania's trade with non-European countries and less than 1% of trade with non-EU countries.
Romania imports from Brazil mainly raw materials and semi-finished products, especially soybean residues (used as animal feed), sugar, crude oil, coffee, tobacco, beef and construction materials.
Romania's exports to Brazil consist of products with higher added value, especially automotive components, beverages, medicines and IT services.
Bilateral trade has hovered around an average of USD 750 million in recent years, but these figures from Brazilian sources do not yet reflect the full potential of trade ties between Brazil and Romania.