Members of a NH delegation touring Empresa Brasileira de Armazenamento (EBA),
a large warehousing and logistics operation outside of São Paulo. (Courtesy of Firebrand International)
A delegation of 10 NH business leaders travelled to Brazil on a trade mission in late September and spent eight days learning about the country’s culture and economic opportunities. The trip was organized by the BRAUSA Trading Co., a NH group of Brazilian-Americans that is focused on establishing business, economic, cultural and academic ecosystems between Brazil and the U.S., and Firebrand International, an international trade consulting firm in Portsmouth.
Firebrand International CEO Dawn Wivell says the group met with various chambers of commerce in every major Brazilian city including São Paulo. She says the face-to-face meetings allowed several NH companies to create lasting partnerships with Brazilian companies. “Brazil is one of the more complex markets I have encountered in my many decades of doing business around the world,” she adds.
Brazil has the largest consumer market and GDP in South America, and it is the third largest economy in the Western Hemisphere. The United States is Brazil’s largest trading partner and in 2023, Brazil was the ninth largest export market for U.S. products.
Among those who participated in the trade mission was Rita Castonguay-Hunt, a strategic executive for Argentech, a drone systems company in Newmarket. “The trade mission surpassed expectations,” she says, adding the company left Brazil with multiple connections and a strong potential business partner.
Keven Joback, president and founder of Molecular Knowledge Systems in Bedford, says the Brazil trip allowed him to make lasting connections. Molecular Knowledge Systems provides artificial intelligence-based software tools that help chemical companies design new chemical products. “Although we’ve had contacts with several Brazilian chemical companies in past years, Brazil was never a market we planned to pursue with substantial effort—not until we had the opportunity to participate in [the] trade mission to São Paulo,” Joback says. “Now that the trade mission is over, we will continue our interactions with the companies we met through email, online meetings, software demonstrations, and, most likely, another visit to São Paulo.”
Liz Gray, state director of the NH Small Business Development Center (NH SBDC), says she was honored to participate in the trade mission. “It proved to be an illuminating experience, broadening our understanding of the Brazilian market, and sparking potential collaborations and future business opportunities,” she says.
Gray, along with Kyla Brustin, NH SBDC’s north and central regional director and export certified business advisor, met with SBDC’s Brazilian counterparts SEBRAE and ApexBrazil, Gray says. “[They] expressed interest in bringing a trade mission to New Hampshire and Boston,” she says. “We look forward to seeing what opportunities our continued collaboration can provide Granite State businesses.”
Gray says SBDC’s goal is to build a strong pipeline of small businesses that are learning how to expand their markets and sales into the expanding global market. “More than 95 percent of the world’s consumers are outside of the United States [and] business competitors are increasing their global market share,” she says. “New Hampshire businesses need to be thinking about that too so they can diversify their customer base, strengthen bottom lines and enhance competitiveness, no matter what size the business is.” For more information about future trade missions contact Wivell at dwivell@FirebrandInternational.com.