Argentina-Jafz trade doubles in 4 years

Trade between Argentina and Jebel Ali Free Zone (Jafz) has doubled in the last four years from Dh104 million in 2009 to Dh220 million in 2012.

The trade essentially reflects Argentina’s growing exports to the GCC markets, Jebel Ali Free Zone Authority (Jafza) said in a statement on Sunday.

Argentina’s desire to strengthen its presence in the Free Zone will certainly provide huge boost to their agri-food, meat, fish and poultry exports to the region.   

A high power Argentina delegation led by Norberto Yahuar, Minister of Agriculture, Livestock and Fisheries in Argentina and Ruben Caro, Argentine Ambassador in the UAE, visited Jafza to explore opportunities to strengthen trade ties between the two sides.

The delegation was received by Adil Al Zarooni, Senior Vice President, Jafza Commercial Sales at the Free Zone.  The Argentine delegation and Jafza officials discussed ways to strengthen and further develop the flow of Argentinean agri-food products into the Middle East, North Africa and South Asian markets, which Jafza as the hub, serves.

Norberto Yahuar said: “Argentina seeks to boost its agri-food and livestock exports particularly meat, fish and poultry products to the Middle East and seeks Jafza’s support to achieve its ambitions in the region. The visit aims at exploring opportunities to strengthen our trade ties with Jafza in order to have larger presence in the region.” 

Al Zarooni in his brief presentation highlighted the strategic strength of Jafza as the trade and logistics hub for the region. He invited Argentinean companies to come and establish their regional base in Jafza to explore opportunities in the rapidly growing markets in the region.

Al Zarooni said: “The Middle East region is among the world’s richest regions in terms of oil and gas reserves and per capita income, but due to water scarcity and lack of arable land, it needs to import 90 per cent of its food requirements. Growth in population and higher disposable income continues to drive demand for food products in the region making the Middle East, one of the fastest growing food markets. This provides huge opportunities to Argentina which seeks to boost its agri-food and livestock exports particularly meat, fish and poultry into the region. Argentinean companies can use Jafza’s multi modal logistics platform to serve the region efficiently.”

He further added, “Jafza is the only multi-modal logistic platform in the region and perhaps in the world, which is located between the region’s two largest enablers, Jebel Ali Port and Al Maktoum International Airport.”

Al Zarooni also highlighted the Free Zone’s incubator concept during the discussion, which is designed to attract and support SMEs in the Free Zone. Al Zarooni said: “The Incubation Facility helps SMEs to explore business prospects in the region at a very nominal cost. Incubation Centre is essentially a collaborative initiative between Jafza and the interested country to support SMEs. Under the scheme Jafza offers Incubator facility to the Agency, who in turn allocates spaces in the centre to interested SMEs from their respective countries.

“We will be more than happy to extend this support to Argentinean companies to enable them to explore opportunities in the region from Jafza, which is gateway to the region’s huge consumer markets.”

Norberto Yahuar said: “We are thankful for Jafza’s warm response and support and expect stronger presence of Argentinean companies in the Free Zone in the coming years.”

Argentina wants to use Dubai as a hub to export and market their agro-industrial and livestock products in the Middle East and globally. Ministry of Agriculture, livestock and Fisheries, Argentina and the Department of Economic Development, Dubai had signed a joint statement of co-operation to this affect in May last year. The present visit was one more step forward in that direction.  

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