Distributor of ingredients, Barentz International, announces a joint venture with Tovani Benzaquen Ingredients in Brazil, to further aid its expansion into Latin America. The pair hope to generate “valuable synergies” by combining production solutions and creating “innovative concepts” for the “important” Latin American market.

“This is our first real entrance into Brazil, a step which fits in perfectly with our global strategy, where Latin America is an important new market,” says Hide van der Wal, CEO of Barentz International, headquartered in the Netherlands.

“Brazil has recovered after some years of recession and we now see great opportunities here, both to develop the country and to grow as a company,” he adds.

Tovani Benzaquen Ingredients is headquartered in Sao Paulo and has been a significant food ingredient distributor in South America since 1992.

“After 25 successful years on the Brazilian market, where our company has grown steadily year by year, the time has come to take a big leap forward together with Barentz,” says Moses Benzaquen, CEO of Tovani Benzaquen Ingredients.

“Barentz, strong in both food and pharma, is the perfect partner for us, to wide and optimize our product portfolio, so that we can continue to serve our customers with an even wider range of high standard ingredients.”

Frank Smit, Regional Director for Latin America and the Caribbean, addressed which product lines may be most popular in the region: "We have seen interest in several of our innovative food ingredients such as Parabel's Lenetein proteins and natural powdered ingredients from AmTech. Vitablend's own line of synthetic and blended natural antioxidants and their vitamin and mineral premixes are highly sought after. Last but not least: we also hope to grow with Tovani Benzaquen in the Personal Care segment. "

Barentz International appeared on the news last week about its expansion into Latin America. They announced the creation of a joint venture with Deltagen Group, a food ingredients distributor based in Curaçao, with a local presence in Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador, Chile and Peru.

In November last year, the two companies announced this strategic cooperation. With the Joint Venture established, an even stronger commercial bond was solidified.

"We were looking for a qualified partner to expand our business in Latin America for a few years," says van der Wal.

Frank Smit, talked about how Latin America is becoming a key market to focus, paving the way for the announcement of expansion in Brazil

“Over the past five to ten years, Latin America has seen a democratization of products that were previously considered ‘premium,’ that are now becoming products of mass consumption. At the same time, there is a growing segmentation on the food and beverage market, and a lot of different products are becoming available in each food category. Another change is that the consumers in Latin America are getting more educated and more aware of the ingredients in food.”

“We do expect to see further growths in Latin America, most of the economies are growing, which means a higher GDP and purchasing power for the consumer. Simultaneously the population is growing so there are more mouths to feed, so to speak.”

In general, most multinationals have a significant presence in mature markets like Europe and North America. In these markets, it is difficult to show one digit growth, according to Smit. “On the contrary, LATAM is still very focused on basic, agricultural products and offers more opportunities for high-value products and high growth possibilities for the food companies entering this market,” he adds.

On a concluding note, Smit adds that while the current partnerships that have been announced publicly mean that Barentz's coverage of the Latin American region is "well on its way," there will be more announcements to come.