Gulf countries invested $4 billion in Latin America in 2016-2022

Dubai, 22 Mar The countries of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) invested some $4 billion in Latin America between 2016 and 2022, the vast majority of them coming from the United Arab Emirates (UAE), which concentrated 77% of that money, a report published by the Chamber of Commerce of Dubai. The report, which was carried out in cooperation with The Economist Impact, also notes that half of these investments in the region are in the logistics, distribution and transport sectors, particularly linked to acquisitions made by DB World, the Emirati company that manages several ports in Argentina, Chile, Peru, and Ecuador, among others. On the contrary, the study also revealed that foreign direct investment from Latin America to the GCC countries (Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman UAE and Qatar Saudi Arabia) was much lower, falling short of $500 million between 2017 and 2021. Of this money, 85% came from Brazil and 13% from Argentina. Brazil's BRF, one of the world's largest food processing companies and one of the largest suppliers of chicken to the Gulf markets, is the largest Latin American investor in the region, having established food plants in both Saudi Arabia and the UAE. The study also noted that bilateral trade between Latin America and the GCC countries was in a marked upward line between 2017 and 2019, before the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic. Specifically, Latin American exports to the Gulf rose from $9.6 million in 2016 to 17.2 million in 2019, before falling to about $15.4 million in 2020. These exports were mainly commodities, such as gold, meat, iron ore, cereals, sugar and coffee. Brazil is once again the country that exports the most to the GCC countries, accounting for 42% of the total, as it is the largest producer and exporter of halal meat (which complies with Islamic purity rituals) to the rest of the world. Conversely, Gulf countries export fertilizers, plastic polymers, aluminum, ammonia and oil to the region. However, the total value of exports remained relatively low, between 2.5 and 3.5 million dollars a year between 2016 and 2020. In this relationship, the GCC countries import Latin American iron ore to produce aluminum, which is then re-exported to the region, while fertilizers and ammonia originating in the Gulf are used in the agricultural sector of Latin America. CHIEF bm/amr/ads