How to Export to Brazil - Sprint Lazio

Brazil – Ministry of External Relations
IV. TRADE PROCEDURES AND COMMERCIAL
PRACTICES
Brazil is a naturally attractive market for any international company due to the size of
its population and its high market potential, which is comparable to some major
world markets. At the same time, the Brazilian market is highly complex and varied,
spread across a great number of large urban centers, and did not develop the culture
of consuming imported products. Furthermore, its productive sector is quite
sophisticated and diversified, with a relatively small number of goods for which there
is no national production.
In this context, the task of selling goods in the Brazilian market does not seem to be
an easy one, especially for South American businesses which, generally speaking,
are small in size and have a reduced scale of production, when compared to the
magnitude of the Brazilian market. What should be done, for example, for a good
harvest of Peruvian olives to reach the Brazilian consumer? The job calls for some key
tasks, such as surveying the market, getting to know about business practices in
Brazil and the country’s government procurement system, identifying the best
distribution channels available, dealing with trade promotion and even becoming
aware of the business and cultural customs in the country.
IV.1. Market survey
The exporter must collect as much information as possible about the tastes and
preferences of the Brazilian consumer, as well as the best markets in the country in
which to place their products, thus opening the right doors into the existing market
reality.
For example, when dealing with products for human use or consumption, in general,
it is best to start with the markets in the South and Southeast regions, comprising the
states of São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, Minas Gerais, Espírito Santo, Rio Grande do
Sul, Paraná and Santa Catarina. This is where the highest levels of per capita
consumption are found and where consumption patterns are more diversified.
Ideally, one of these states should be chosen as the first point of entry and, subsequently,
as business progresses, expand contacts to the remaining regions. Thus, for instance,
initial contacts can be made with potential importers in São Paulo and, later on, after
consolidating the initial exports, advance to the cities of Rio de Janeiro, Belo Horizonte,
Vitória, Porto Alegre, Curitiba and Florianópolis, which are the capitals of the
aforementioned states.
In these large Brazilian cities, there are millions of consumers that marketing strategists
have stratified as belonging to classes A, of high purchasing power, B, divided into
upper and lower middle classes, and the so-called classes C and D, of lower purchasing
power, but which also constitute an excellent market for certain consumer products.
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