The Coconut Development Authority of Sri Lanka in collaboration with the Department of Commerce and the Sri Lanka Embassy in Brazil participated at the APAS Show – 2019 which is considered as the largest supermarket exhibition held in Latin America. The APAS Show 2019 was held from 6th to 9th May 2019 at the Expo-Centre, Sao Paulo, Brazil.
The Sri Lankan delegation was headed by Hon. Vadivel Suresh, M.P., State Minister of Plantation Industries and four Sri Lankan leading coconut exporting companies, namely: M/s Bio Extracts (Pvt) Ltd, M/s Consolidated Business Systems (Pvt) Ltd, M/s Agri Exports (Pvt) Ltd and M/s NDC Exports (Pvt) Ltd and Mr. Mihira Perera, promotional officer of the Coconut Development Authority of Sri Lanka.
The Sri Lankan stall at the APAS Show exhibited a range of coconut products such as desiccated coconut, coconut milk powder, virgin coconut oil, and coconut flour and coconut sugar. The participating delegation held a number of successful B2B meetings with the leading supermarket suppliers in Brazil for a variety of coconut product brands such as Copra, Quality Coco, and Coco Land and received numerous business inquiries from leading supermarket suppliers and individual companies in Brazil during the exhibition.
It is significant to note that during the past 5 years, the exports of coconut related products from Sri Lanka to Brazil registered over 2% increase and the industry has constantly grown in 2018. The APAS exhibition provides an ideal opportunity for Sri Lankan manufacturers and exporters of supermarket products to expand their production and distribution network in South America.
Over 800 Brazilian and international participants, representing more than 20 countries, exhibited a wide range of products of super markets including food, beverages, personal hygiene, cleaning products at this year´s APAS Show. The exhibition included trade shows and business seminars and brought greater integration among entrepreneurs, industry personalities and international buyers by providing a real business platform that generated over 80,000 transactions of business.
The APAS Show is an annual consumer trade exhibition organized by the São Paulo Supermarket Association (Associação Paulista de Supermercados) which represents the supermarket industry in the State of São Paulo and their entire supply chain which has around 1,500 associates, which sum up to more than four thousand stores.
