ASUTIL Secretary General José Luis Donagaray insists that stores in Brazilian border towns will definitely open, despite the fact that the law to approve them was passed almost five years ago.

 

“As you know, the law has been approved [originally 2012], but this has not yet been implemented,” Donagaray told TRBusiness. “It’s a very, very complex law and it’s very, very difficult to implement.

 

“The Receita de Federal de Brasil [the tax office in Brazil] is dealing with some other political issues right now which are much more important, but the law has been approved so the shops will come. It may be tomorrow, in two months, one year, but it will come…definitely. It will happen.”

 

Donagaray (pictured below left) also revealed that whilst waiting for the government to make some important decisions regarding allowances etc, the association continues to charge on with its advocacy efforts; particularly relating to the tobacco category.

 

“We had meetings in Orlando (at the IAADFS show) with people from tobacco companies and with people from the ETRC. We are working on the challenges the tobacco industry is facing.

 

SPECIAL TOBACCO STRATEGY FOR LATIN AMERICA

“Our next meeting will be in Rio during the ASUTIL conference where we will deliver a special strategy for Latin America coordinated with IAADFS, ASUTIL, the ETRC and the tobacco companies. [TRBusiness understands that Imperial Tobacco, JTI, Philip Morris and BAT are all onboard at this point.]

 

“After highlighting the problems facing tobacco at last year’s conference, this year we are insisting that many of the problems tobacco is facing are not just limited to tobacco. They will affect the whole business. I am going to insist this again this year.”

 

Meanwhile, Donagaray tells TRBusiness that the Latin American market is on track for recovery this year, with many new airport developments sure to contribute to stabilisation.

 

“We already know that Chile is going to have a new airport; Paraguay this year will be announcing a new landlord and will have changes; Peru has seen a lot of changes; Brazil has changed all the airports, so in terms of airports it’s going to be a very interesting future.”

 

Find the full-length interview with José Luis Donagaray in the June issue of TRBusiness.