The Arab country took the lead from China as the main destination of poultry exported from Brazil in February
It’s the first time the UAE ranks first in the list
São Paulo – The United Arab Emirates took in February for the first time the lead in poultry imports from Brazil
which had been the leading poultry buyer until then
“The UAE gained prominence in exports from Brazil in the last couple of months
along with the increase in sales to Mexico and the European Union,” ABPA Markets director Luís Rua was quoted as saying in a statement regarding February exports
the level of purchases from these regions is expected to be maintained over the following months
which is a strong competitor for Brazil in poultry supply to destinations like the EU
is likely to export lesser volumes due to the war with Russia
Overall poultry exports from Brazil stepped up 7.4% in February to 348,800 tonnes
exports grossed USD 663 million last month
now the second largest importer of poultry from Brazil
Revenue was up 33.9% to USD 1.280 billion from USD 956.1 million one year ago
The Gulf country has deposited its instrument of acceptance of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) Agreement on Fisheries Subsidies
which is aimed at curbing harmful subsidies that contribute to overfishing and promoting the sustainable management of global marine resources
The Brazil-Arab News Agency (ANBA) is the news website of the Arab Brazilian Chamber of Commerce
Its goal is to promote communication between Brazilians and Arabs
established Terraxy together with his Indian professor Himanshu Mishra
Company has developed innovations that help the desertic soil retain water and nutrients for agriculture
São Paulo – Creating two innovative products for Saudi Arabia’s soil took years of research for Matelândia
Brazil-born chemical engineer Adair Gallo Jr.
The project he developed in partnership with the supervising professor in his Master’s and PhD studies in Saudi Arabia
a startup that sells a biocoal capable of delivering nutrient to soil and a special sand that helps retain water into the soil and prevents it from evaporating in the dry desert climate
The company has expanded to the point of increasing its CarboSoil biocoal output twentyfold
Gallo’s story outside Brazil started in 2014 as chemical engineering student from Paraná
who went to the United States for an internship through the Brazilian government’s scholarship program Science without Borders
After a few months in a university in Iowa
he moved on to an internship in California where he met Mishra
The professor would soon move to Saudi Arabia to work at King Abdullah University of Science and Technology
and invited the Brazilian student to move to the Arab country with him
Then Gallo returned to Brazil to finish his undergraduate studies and decided to do an internship at KAUST in 2016 by the invitation of Mishra
The campus of the university was in Thuwal
Gallo was later accepted into a master’s course and a PhD
he was called on by Mishra to help a colleague studying hydrophobic materials
So started the development of SandX as an academic project back then
It is a material consisting basically of sand and paraffin
which results in sand-like grains able to repel water
“The new material went wrong in the first tests
Gallo compares the effect of SandX to the plastic used to cover farmlands
SandX doesn’t release small plastic particles on earth
Another comparison is with straw in the no-tillage system
while SandX prevents the soil from losing water
another one was revealed by research – the soil
and it has trouble absorbing nutrients and fertilizers made available
Then the engineer started researching the soil conditions
tropical-climate rainforest in Brazil – the Amazon
as well as the Colombian and Peruvian Amazon
He found in his studies a type of organic matter resulting from decomposing organic compounds capable of enriching the soil with various nutrients
This matter is not native from the region and is only found in areas where there is the soil called terra preta [black soil]
it was introduced there by humans thousands of years ago
which is also poor in nutrients as the hot and humid forest causes a rapid degradation of organic matter
According to research disseminated by Brazil’s agricultural research agency Embrapa and studies published in scientific journals
“Our innovation was managing to adapt this organic material to the needs of the region’s oil,” says Gallo
This adaptation includes a thermochemical process where the material doesn’t undergo combustion but carbonization
The compound collected is then heated in a closed-off environment
This is the process by which it degrades into biomass and “becomes” the CarboSoil the company sells
“It is a process that makes much sense in the carbon capture process,” says Gallo
The company still makes a lot of tests with these and other products in development
One of the species used in these is  acacia
a plant common in the country because it can thrive even amid the desert climate in Saudi Arabia
which is the target market of the company for now
Terraxy would only start as a business in early 2022 when research was able to advance with the university’s support and funding
As the products are being well accepted in the local market
it is expected that the company will soon “grow on its own”
we saw that we were in line with the kingdom’s vision [to diversify the economy] and that [the research products] were commercially viable,” he says
Gallo and his wife – a Brazilian that develops postdoctoral research at KAUST – occasionally visit Brazil
the family grew upon the birth of their first son
“Now I live the daily life of the company,” says Gallo
The security we found here can’t be found nowhere else
A journalist with stints in daily newspapers and press offices
he holds a master’s degree from the School of Arts and Humanities of the University of Lisbon and a postgraduate degree in business communications from the Methodist University of São Paulo
Its goal is to promote communication between Brazilians and Arabs.