(MENAFN- Brazil-Arab News Agency (ANBA)) Bruna Garcia Fonseca
São Paulo – Palestinian company Al-Rwad is one of the Arab companies to exhibit at food and beverage fair Anufood Brazil , occurring from March 12 to 14 in São Paulo, Brazil. The company produces Medjool dates. The fair will have its first edition in São Paulo and is organized by the Koelnmesse group, which also organizes the Anuga fair in Germany, one of the world's largest for the sector.
Al-Rwad is participating for the first time in an event in Brazil and intends to enter the Brazilian market. 'We expect to find Brazilian companies interested in buying our products. I hope we'll be successful in Brazil; this is our dream, we want our high-quality products all over the world,' said the owner Ratebah Zawahreh, who talked to ANBA by phone from Palestine.
Founded in 2010, the company owns farms but also buys from local producers. 'We are helping the Palestinian farmer,' said Zawahreh. According to her, 2,000 tons were produced and exported last year, and the production rises every year. The company started exporting to Turkey and now sells to countries such as Spain, England, France, Italy, United States, Malaysia, Indonesia, Russia, and Kenya.
Date farm in Al-Auja in Palestine
According to Zawahreh, Medjool dates are the 'queen of dates', high-quality, big in size, and very sweet, besides being extremely healthy. Al-Rwad has several lines of products, including Premium, Delight and Classic.
The company is owned by Ratebah and her husband, Khader Zawahreh. 'My husband is the one going to the fair in Brazil, and he is also representing our company in Gulfood in February,' she said. Gulfood is the largest food and beverage fair in the Middle East, and is ocurring in Dubai from February 17 to 21, featuring Arab Brazilian Chamber of Commerce and more than 90 Brazilian companies.
According to Zawahreh, what sets the Palestinian company apart from others is the use of modern machinery, a space of their own for packing, and a refrigerated warehouse at -427 °F to keep the quality of the fruits. 'We also export in refrigerated containers because the ship journeys to Malaysia, for example, may last more than 40 days,' said the owner.
The factory can pack 3.5 tons of dates per hour, and the refrigerated warehouse stocks up to 2,400 tons of the fruit. Zawahreh said that if they are kept in good conditions, the fruits may be consumed in up to two years.
Al-Rwad is based in the Al-Aujavillage, seven miles from Jericho, West Bank, where the Zawahreh family lives.
Even fearing she couldn't communicate well in English, Zawahreh was friendly and talkative, and at a given point of the interview, said very spontaneously, 'In this time of the year, in winter, Palestine is very beautiful and good to live in', and even invited the reporter to visit her when in the country.
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