Gringoes.com: Importing Products to Brazil

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Matt
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Joined: 14 November 2006
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Topic: Importing Products to Brazil
Posted: 19 January 2012 at 09:58

Hi;

It's still early days but I'm considering to start importing wines, and related products, to Brazil, namely from South Africa to start.

I'm looking to find somebody who has advise or experience with importing and selling foreign products in Brazil. Please note I'm starting from the ground here so my knowledge is minimal, but that doesn't phase me as I'm quite determined to start new ventures and see where they lead.

Any advise/guidance/comments would be appreciated.

Matt

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amypie1
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Joined: 15 December 2010
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Posted: 19 January 2012 at 10:53

https://sites.google.com/site/irsassessoria/

amy

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sven
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Joined: 14 March 2007
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Posted: 19 January 2012 at 11:27

wine and foodstufs, yells for vigilância sanitária. you'll need to check with them, the ministry of agricultura probably. Get yourself informed well. Otherwise you might end up with a huge headache.

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BorisG
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Joined: 26 July 2006
Location: Brazil
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Posted: 19 January 2012 at 18:41

The best advice is don´t do it or expect to lose twice or thrice as much money as you intend to invest.

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Gringo.Floripa
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Joined: 17 June 2010
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Posted: 19 January 2012 at 19:39

Originally posted by Matt

It's still early days but I'm considering to start importing wines, and related products, to Brazil, namely from South Africa to start.

Matt, your profile says you're here in Brasil. Is that correct? If so, you might want to reverse your idea, and do some research on what you could export from Brasil to other countries. Focus on something light-weight, not fragile, which doesn't spoil.

I couldn't find the original story, but a friend of mine in NYC told me awhile back how some enterprising person created a fashion trend with the simple cloth and string bracelets sold in Bahia and the NE. As the trend began to die down (as all trends do), it's evidently been given new life by making the items in more "glamorous" materials (and a higher price tag).

New Take on Friendship Bracelets

Your challenge would be to find some other simple product made here, which sells for "a dime a dozen", and turn it into a lucrative trend.

Boa sorte!!!

I might bark, but I don't bite.

(trolls, sock puppets, Brasil-bashers, and "Joined:Today" persons too lazy to use the Search function excluded; cry babies too)

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Matt
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Posted: 21 January 2012 at 19:37

All I'm getting is a resounding NO over here.

I've spoken to a family member and he's linking me up with people in the importing of food and wine industry. So I'll get some feedback from them as well.

I'm in the process of ordering a case of wine for personal consumption from SA, just to see how the process goes and cost involved.

Gringo.Floripa, I'm jealous, I hardly see the beach even though I got surfboards in Ubatuba and Guaruja. Thanks for the tip, the reverse scenario is also something worth considering. Though, for example, Brazilian wine I'm not sure. Biggest brands here are Miolo and Valduga, but even though they're great (esp. Valduga) you can get really good wine for very cheap (compared to the Brazilian Real) in SA. They definitely won't make the shelves, but restaurants maybe.

Thanks all for your responses. I still have a lot of research to do.

Edited by Matt - 21 January 2012 at 19:38

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Gringo.Floripa
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Posted: 21 January 2012 at 20:32

Originally posted by Matt

Thanks for the tip, the reverse scenario is also something worth considering. Though, for example, Brazilian wine I'm not sure. Biggest brands here are Miolo and Valduga, but even though they're great (esp. Valduga) you can get really good wine for very cheap (compared to the Brazilian Real) in SA. They definitely won't make the shelves, but restaurants maybe.

Negatory!!! Ship Brasilian wine to other countries?!? Dead

A sure-fire way to go bankrupt!

Like I said, if you pick a product lightweight, not fragile, doesn't spoil, then you might have a shot at a successful go at exporting something....

But if wine is still your focus, then you should come here to the south and check out some of the "vinhos de altitude". Personally, I think highly overrated, and definitely overpriced. Yet you might find a niche market with private consumers.

However, if you get the ZA wine import thing going, please pm me!!! Would love some Pinotage for next winter!

EDIT: Ordering wine for "personal consumption" is one thing, importing wine is an entirely different ballgame! Don't assume the taxes, etc you might end up paying equate to what you'd pay with an import business....

Edited by Gringo.Floripa - 21 January 2012 at 20:55

I might bark, but I don't bite.

(trolls, sock puppets, Brasil-bashers, and "Joined:Today" persons too lazy to use the Search function excluded; cry babies too)

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Matt
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Posted: 21 January 2012 at 22:04

Haven't been Vinho de Altitude yet, but have been to the Vale dos Vinhedos before. Brazil is definitely growing in the wine industry, but yes still way overpriced. The guy I'm to meet has already purchased a winery.

Want Pinotage, try here: vinhosevinhos.com or Mistral.com.br who have the Kanonkop Pinotage 2009 priced at R$133.95 per bottle, yet in South Africa it is R39 per bottle, which comes to R$8.67 at today's conversion rate! How did they go from R$9 to R$133?

Honestly, I've never tried buying from those websites before nor tasted the Pinotages they offer but my personal favourite is the Diemersfontein Pinotage. I have a bottle, or two, in storage but still waiting for the right time to open one. Wedding Anniversary coming up soon...

Yeah, I'm aware of the difference between personal consumption and doing it for business. It is a different ballgame as you say.

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sven
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Joined: 14 March 2007
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Posted: 22 January 2012 at 06:58

Originally posted by Matt

.

Want Pinotage, try here: vinhosevinhos.com or Mistral.com.br who have the Kanonkop Pinotage 2009 priced at R$133.95 per bottle, yet in South Africa it is R39 per bottle, which comes to R$8.67 at today's conversion rate! How did they go from R$9 to R$133?

.

Tax, shipping, tax over shipping. Registering at vigilancia sanitaria.

And don't forget new labels. Must be in Portuguese.

Edited by sven - 22 January 2012 at 06:59

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MaCCi_7
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Joined: 28 September 2011
Location: Brazil
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Posts: 119

Posted: 22 January 2012 at 07:24

Howzit Matt,

I looked into importing wine from SA. There's a serious lack of decent SA wine on the shelves in Brasil . Obviously you get your Nederburg's and so on but the lesser ones (if you can find them) are seriously overpriced compared to SA (and anywhere else in the world). I remember seeing a few bottle decent SA wine at Maison des Caves in Soa Paulo (Meerlust Pinot Noir for R$200 for example).

What I found was that a lot of the big wineries already have distribution deals with booze importers in Brasil. So it will be tricky to bring these in as i gather a lot of these deals are exclusive. We both know that there are tons of smaller wine farms producing excellent wines, I would try focus on these.

Some things I noticed when i looked into this.

1. To do this and make money, you need scale. You need buy in bulk and bring a lot of it in at once to bring down the average price. This is capital intense.

2. Importing anything into Brasil is a major pain in the ass. Some SA wine distributors even told me this (which is why they dont do it themselves). Often bottles are confiscated at the port for paperwork not being quite up to scratch. So there is a risk factor involved.

3. Despite points 1 and 2, i still think that wine can be imported from SA into Brasil and sold for a profit. Doing the simple maths (buying, relabelling, shipping, taxes etc) I dont see why the bottle price is as high as it is. Unless im missing a key tax or expense, I can only assume that there is some form of price collusion going on! So I think there is space to import great value-for-money SA wine and sell it for 15-20% less than the normal shelf price in Brasil. But then again, if it was this cheap - would most Brasilian simply dismiss it as plonk and go for the Mendoza Malbec instead?

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