The Brazilian participation in Coverings 2023, the largest and most traditional fair of the coverings sector in North America for the national market, generated more than 25,6 million dollars in immediate business during the four days of the event held from April 18th to 21st, in Orlando, Florida.
Installed in a total area of 1,653 square meters, the Brazilian Pavilion brought together 71 companies from the natural stone segment, among small, medium, and large companies. The event was organized by It’s Natural – Brazilian Natural Stone, a program to support the exports of natural stones maintained by the Brazilian Center of Natural Stone Exporters (Centrorochas) in partnership with the Brazilian Trade and Investment promotion Agency (ApexBrasil).
In a survey conducted by Centrorochas after the end of the fair, almost 20% of the Brazilian companies present at the Pavilion registered results above expectations. “The United States are the main importers of ornamental stones in the world and have Brazil as their primary commercial partner. In this year’s edition, besides the 25,6 million dollars in direct business, the entrepreneurs pointed out an expectation of almost 127 million dollars in commercial transactions over the next 12 months”, highlighted Centrorochas’ president, Tales Machado.
Despite the strong relationship between Brazil and the United States, the green-yellow pavilion at the fair attracted qualified visitors from several nationalities. More than 5 thousand contacts were made by Brazilian companies during the event. Besides the North Americans, Canadians, Mexicans, Turks, and Costa Ricans formed the group of the main contacts made.
The manager of It’s Natural, Rogério Ribeiro, attributes the great demand for Brazilian products to the fact that the country has more than 1,200 varieties of natural stone. “We are the world’s fourth largest producer and fifth largest exporter. Besides the unique diversity, Brazil has a large industrial park to supply blocks, finished and semi-finished products, works of art, design, architecture, among other forms”, he detailed. With technological production capacity, the Brazilian stone sector operates with modern and environmentally sustainable processes. The segment has the lowest CO2 emission rate in production, when compared to other coating options used in architecture projects and counts on the reuse of more than 95% of all the water used in the production process. In addition, the production residues are reused or destined to licensed deposits.
