Our business concept, since the establishment of Portas Brasil five years ago, has always placed an emphasis on the opportunity for playing the role of a hub for trading in high quality branded goods not only in Suriname, but also in the neighboring countries, particularly Brazil, as well as Venezuela, through our company in Curacao.
The hub concept is based on the premise that while the Suriname retail market is rather limited in size, while there is a large untapped potential in the neighboring regions of Northern Brazil and also Venezuela. Portas Brasil strives to become the leading importer of high quality branded consumer goods, directly from the manufacturers.
Based on our experience in trading with wholesalers from Northern Brazil and Venezuela (through our company outlet in Curacao), we aim to continue to expand our network and considerably increase the volume of our business, catering to a high demand for high quality consumer goods at competitive prices.
The Northern Brazil market potential
Suriname has a direct border with Northern Brazil, which is de facto open, considerably facilitating commerce In this area of interest, there are some 25 fairly big cities, with a combined population of over 20 million. These include Belem (2.1m), Manaus (2m), Salvador Bahia (3m), Recife (1.6 m), Sao Luis (1m) and so on.
The cities in this northern area of Brazil are very far from the largest commercial cities in the country and thus supplies from there are problematic and rather expensive Portas.
Brazil has already established itself as a reliable supplier of branded goods to the fairly large and wealthy Brazilian ex pat community in Suriname Thus, we started working with a number of Brazilian wholesalers and traders, who buy branded consumer goods from Portas Brazil, to distribute them across Northern Brazil.
This business model has proved so successful, that Portas Brazil has started looking for further opportunities to buy branded consumer goods directly from manufacturers, in much larger quantities than before
The Venezuela market potential
Venezuela is a special case on the South American continent, in view of the prolonged political and economic crisis in the country and the galloping inflation. The country has a population of some 32 million There is a severe shortage of branded consumer goods, which provides a huge opportunity for entrepreneurs both inside the country and from other countries in the region.
Since Suriname does not have a direct border with Venezuela, Portas Brasil established a new company outlet in Curacao, in order to trade with Venezuelan wholesale clients. We sell branded consumer goods to Venezuelan wholesalers, who ship the goods by sea over a distance of only 690 km.
We not only supply goods, which are not available on the Venezuelan market, but also, due to the excellent location of our company, make the goods quickly available on the market, at acceptable prices.
