The harvesting of Brazilian lychees started later in January this year due to unexpected rain in December last year (2022). This coupled with the consequences of the Russian war in Ukraine affected the production and export of their lychees says Paulo Farias, of exporter Log America Trade.
“In 2022, in addition to the consequences caused by the war, we also had unexpected climate changes that affected the fruit growing production chain. For example, the case of lychees: there were delays in the production cycle and in the harvest, there was excessive rainfall and the harvests foreseen for December took place in January,” says Farias.
Despite these events lychee is shown to be a promising product with great growth potential as an exotic fruit in Brazil says Farias. “Another key factor in the success of lychees was the contemporary and flexible vision of our fruit grower, Ricardo Pinto. He diversified the production of lychees by planting several varieties, some of which were new to the Brazilian market. As a result of the dedication of our partners and our work as a great team, Log America Trade has become a differentiated company that today manages to deliver a wide range of differentiated products to international customers.”
Later in September this year Log America will celebrate 10 years in the food export business. Faria’s says their investment in international marketing, in recent years where they were able to test and have export experiments with various exotic fruits and varieties developed by Brazilian researchers, such as cortibel guava and apple mango.
They currently serve more than 16 countries on different continents, such as Canada, the United Kingdom, France, Spain and the United Arab Emirates. Through this diversification of the market, they manage to have a better understanding of world consumption trends. “In atypical situations such as the war between Russia and Ukraine last year, the entry of food into Europe was affected and there was a decrease in imports of fresh fruit,” states Farias.
Ricardo Pinto, one of the biggest lychee producers in Brazil who has more than five varieties produced on his farm.
New technology for producers
“We are aiming to reach and serve this profile of producers in Brazil, aligned with our perspectives and values, we understand that technology is our greatest ally. For this reason, we recently inaugurated a specific system to integrate the team of producers and their collaborators, optimizing export processes. The producer's space is an area of our new export system aimed at making all stages of fruit logistics and marketing more dynamic. In this space, the producer receives all the information on the export order, follows up on each shipment dynamically and wherever he is. Orders are registered in real time on the producer's page. In this space he will be able to follow all the necessary details to organize the shipment of the week. The producer also receives feedback on their products directly from our customers,” explains Farias.
Accredited OECD Quality Inspectors
He believes Brazil has unique characteristics such as the climate and the necessary technologies to achieve their great potential in fruit growing. In 2022, Brazil took another step towards expanding the export of fresh fruits and vegetables. “In October, federal agricultural inspectors were trained to act as quality inspectors for the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). This OECD classification seeks an international standard, so it qualifies Brazil, which has excellent quality fruits and vegetables.”
Log America's participation in OECD capacity building with the Ministry of Agriculture (MAPA).
“We are the first company in the Brazilian state of Goiás accredited by the OECD to audit fruit and vegetables. With the audit, we can guarantee more security in classification for the foreign market, adding more value to fresh fruit and producing sustainably. Our mission now is to bring even more achievements to our network of partner producers as well - Benefits that only a well-executed inter-nationalization process can bring. Together we hope to bring the vast menu of Brazilian fruits to as many people as possible in even more countries,” ended Farias.
For more information:
Paulo Henrique Barbosa Farias
Log America Trade
WhatssApp: +55 629 9914 1006
Email: [email protected]
www.logamerica.com.br