Sovena will also have retail olive

The Portuguese Sovena group, owner of the largest olive groves in the world, plans to bring olives to Brazil in 2013. The main activity of the company is the production of olive oil, but the Sovena Group also operates with oil, biodiesel and vinegar, in addition to olives. In Brazil, owns the trademark, distributed by Bunge oils.
Vasco Campos, Sovena's regional manager for Latin America, says it is structuring the entry of the olives with the Swallow brand in the country, but does not give details about the operation.
The Portuguese city of Porto, fields lives in Brazil for a year and a half. Before, spent three months a year seasons here, doing business. He assumed the position of regional manager of Sovena in November 2012, a change in the structure of the company whose goal is to strengthen relations between the Sovena and trading partners and indirect, as large retail chains.
The Brazil became the main Office of Latin America and the marketing will be higher in 2013 here than in Portugal, for the second year in a row.
The supply of bars and restaurants is another field mission this year. The food service operation today represents little for Sovena and the Executive says it is studying how to increase sales in that channel, possibly through partnerships with Bunge.
There are, however, many difficulties, says fields. The main one is the lack of data on the food service market. On the other hand, the fact that there is low penetration of olive oil, the Group's flagship product in this market is challenging. "The food service billing for olive oil is small, does not reach 10%."
The introduction of new products will help the Sovena group to "develop market in Brazil", repeated by the Executive term several times during the interview. "Latin America is the ' Achilles heel ' group", says fields, referring to the need to expand the operation in a region that grows and, with it, to make it less dependent on Europe in crisis.
The Sovena is the second largest oil company and the largest supplier of "own brand" product in the world (one of the clients is the American network Walmart). In 2012, won more than € 1 billion and moved 160 thousand tons of oil and 500 thousand tons of oil. 1.1 thousand employees and has eight factories in the world.