Continuing coverage
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution’s Greg Bluestein is accompanying Gov. Nathan Deal and the rest of the trade delegation on the trip to Brazil. He will provide continuing coverage of the journey on ajc.com and MyAJC.com and in the AJC.
Economic figures:
Two-way trade between Brazil and Georgia topped $2.1 billion in 2014. Georgia’s exports to Brazil grew by 64 percent in the past five years, making it the state’s sixth-largest export market.
Georgia is home to about 40 Brazilian firms that employ roughly 5,000. They include Eucatex, Gerdau, JBS, Keystone Foods and Stefanini.
This year marks the 20th anniversary of Georgia’s presence in Sao Paulo.
Gov. Nathan Deal picked an unlikely spot for his first trade mission since winning re-election. He will lead a group of about 20 business leaders and state officials on a five-day trip to Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo on Saturday in hopes of strengthening Georgia’s ties with Brazil’s growing economy.
The $2.1 billion in two-way trade between Georgia and Brazil in 2014 pales in comparison with Canada and China, the focal points of Deal’s earlier trade missions. But the trip is meant to highlight Georgia’s effort to compete with Miami and Houston for a greater share of Latin American business.
“I would argue that Georgia is the place to be if you want to be the gateway to the Latin American market,” said Chris Carr, the state’s economic development commissioner. “We’ve got to find new markets and customers, and more sources of foreign and direct investment. And we think there’s a great opportunity for that in Brazil.”
Brazil only has a tiny, if growing, imprint on Georgia’s jobs market, with about 40 Brazilian facilities in Georgia that employ about 5,000 people. But trade between the two regions has surged in the past five years thanks in part to Brazil’s appetite for building materials and medical equipment. Brazil is now Georgia’s sixth-largest import market.
The trip will ping-pong across Brazil’s sprawling coastline, starting in Rio de Janeiro and ending in Sao Paulo. Along the way, Deal and the delegation will meet with the governors of both cities, huddle with trade industry groups, visit the Brazilian outposts of Georgia firms, and pitch investment bankers and tour operators on why they should invest in Georgia.
Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed, who led a similar delegation to Brazil in April 2014, came home tantalized by the opportunities.
“Brazil’s trajectory is undeniable,” Reed said. “The people of Brazil have strong social ties to Miami. But we want to be the business capital for Latin and South America. And that’s the case that I’m making and that Governor Deal is making.”
Reed is expected to promote Atlanta as an alternative to Miami later this month during a trip to Cuba. That trip will be led by the World Affairs Council of Atlanta, an international affairs organization affiliated with Georgia State University. Officials say the trip — which comes as the U.S. considers renewed diplomatic relations with Cuba — is geared toward gaining a deeper understanding of that country’s business climate.
In Brazil, Deal’s delegation will include top executives for Coca-Cola, Delta Air Lines, Georgia Power and Gulfstream. Also on the trip will be contracting executive Sachin Shailendra, a recent appointee to the Georgia Board of Regents, and state Rep. Terry England, the chairman of the House’s budget-writing committee.
In addition to Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo, Deal’s visit will include a visit to Campinas, an inland city of 2.2 million people that’s home to one of Latin America’s most prestigious universities. There, he will listen to entrepreneurs seeking inroads in the U.S. market.
The visit will also have a strong agricultural bent. The governor will meet with the leaders of the holding company that owns Pilgrim’s Pride, which owns a Gainesville plant that is one of the largest chicken producers in the world, and the headquarters of Marfrig Global Foods, a major food processor.
Their goal of unseating Miami, the home of regional hubs of hundreds of Latin American firms, seems an unlikely prospect. But state leaders say that stepping up the competition will pay dividends.
“As much as folks enjoy Miami and South Florida,” Reed said, “they really feel like it’s an extension of Latin America and it doesn’t have the concentration of businesses and potential clients like we do because of the concentration of large companies we have.”
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