By Jay Forte, Contributing Reporter
RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – Retailers and consumers are seeing a wave of imported products in Brazil, mainly due to the favorable exchange rate of the Brazilian real to the U.S. dollar. However while this is a welcome turn for those looking to purchase imported beverages, electronics or garments in Brazil, analyst warn of the negative effect on the domestic markets.
In a report by O Globo, Antonio Correa de Lacerda, a professor at PUC-SP explained: “The pace of imports is no longer as healthy for the Brazilian economy. This is because many [imports] substitute products manufactured domestically.”
According to LCA Consulting, today about twenty percent of industrial products consumed in Brazil are imported, as opposed to 2008 when 16.6 percent were. This increased market share of products from other countries appears at stores like Center Perfumaria.
In the retailer chain, the branches that sell perfumes and cosmetics, the presence of imports grew on average five percent per year. And those that sell hair products, the annual growth reaches twenty percent.
In the market for infant and childcare, the products manufactured in other countries are also present. At Très Jolie, eighty percent of toys are imported, but these represent only five percent of sales from the store.
In the food and beverage industry, there is a growing phenomenon of imported items. Leonardo Fajardo, a partner at delicatessen Zona Zen, told O Globo that, “The sale of imported wines and olive oils, rose thirty percent this year alone.”
Fajardo had just imported forty boxes of French wines to complement the stock, as: “This period give the oil and wine as we know that the return is certain, because of Easter.”
Despite heavy import taxes on products manufactured outside of Brazil, the demand for imported products is also certainly related to Brazil’s strengthened economy, growing middle class, and increased consumer spending, even if much of it is credit-based.
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