**“Cologne is the perfect place for us in Europe” **

The partnership between the city of Cologne and Rio de Janeiro is successful. With the support of a start-up center, Brazilian companies prefer to settle in the Rhineland. Now, there is another pop culture fair coming from São Paulo to Cologne.

In his office at the Brazil Business Center Cologne (BBCC), Ederson Pasquali and Tiago Etges immerse in their computers. The two Brazilians work for the company E2PS, which manufactures technology for the beverage industry in Brazil and employs 45 people there. Pasquali and Etges moved to Cologne a year ago to investigate the European market. "Our company in Brazil founded a sales subsidiary in Cologne, and we plan to open a factory later," says Pasquali, manager of E2PS. The two men are living with their family in Cologne for a year: "Our children go to school here, everything works very well," Etges reports with satisfaction. In recent years, Cologne has become one of the favorite destinations of Brazilian companies. This is also the result of the partnership with the city of Rio de Janeiro since 2011. Only two years later, Ricardo Saavedra (38) founded the BBCC.

The lawyer from Rio works with two other Brazilians in the center of the busy northern German city. "Cologne is the perfect place for us in Europe," says Saavedra, who has lived here for eleven years. The Rhineland is also very important for Brazilian businesspersons because of the many fairs, such as "Anuga", the medical fair "Medica" in Düsseldorf and the "IDS" dental fair in Cologne. For three years, Koelnmesse has even owned a subsidiary in São Paulo, which organizes five trade show events. For that reason, the city and Koelnmesse also hosted the Brazil-Germany economic meeting in 2018 at the Cologne Exhibition Center. In addition, Minister of Economy NRW Andreas Pinkwart (FDP) shows great interest in Brazil.

Not surprisingly, the fifth largest country in the world is an economic giant with 208 million inhabitants. This market is also of interest to German companies, many of which have had subsidiaries for decades in Brazil, such as Bayer, Oetker and Henkel. However, the country also offers great opportunities for small and medium-sized businesses, says the BBCC. At the same time, Brazilian companies are looking more and more outside their home and Latin American market. "With the beginning of the crisis in Brazil, about five years ago, we realized that the interest in Europe and especially in Germany has increased a lot," says Michael Josipovic, head of the Economic Development of Cologne. Cologne might even claim to have a similar mentality, for example, regarding carnival. Meanwhile, more than 5,000 Brazilians live in the area of the city of Cologne and another 5,000 in the Rhineland area. They are served by two Brazilian honorary consulates based in Aachen and Düsseldorf.

The Brazil Business Center in Cologne ensures that potential investors and founders find their way as quickly as possible. At Gamescom's latest computer gaming event, for example, BBCC CEO Saavedra was touring with a group of 20 Brazilians - as a sort of opening-door for the local computer gaming industry. "Everyone was excited about what is happening here in Cologne and the region and with the welcome with which they received the Brazilian activities." Meanwhile, nine Brazilian companies from different sectors were installed in the BBCC, reports Saavedra. In addition to the two other companies that were already represented in Cologne. "They continue to operate despite us in the city of Cologne," says Saavedra. Also, two other Brazilian companies want to create subsidiaries in Cologne this semester.

The founder and owner of BBCC is Ralph Stock. The lawyer leads in Cologne one of the three law firms specialized in Brazil. "In this sense, we already have a certain point of sale unique," says the lawyer, who is married to a Brazilian and travels regularly with his family to Brazil. Born in Cologne, he spent seven months in Brazil practicing to his state exams, working in the language and with law: "We are also represented locally and we take care of the needs of our clients," says Stock. BBCC also has its partner in southern Brazil in the state of Santa Catarina called the Germany Business Center.

**Opportunities for companies in North Rhine-Westphalia**

Stock encouraged Koelnmesse to look more closely at Brazil. They have great opportunities there, despite the existing economic crisis. Although European companies and investors are very reluctant because of controversial new president Jair Bolsonaro, other countries are much more active. The last increase began 15 years ago, but the Germans were already far behind, Stock recalls. Unlike the Chinese who are now involved in many places. "This should not happen this time," says the founder of BBCC. "Because the next rise in Brazil is definitely coming."

With the support of the BBCC, the Cologne Business Development Agency and the fair are also trying to attract more companies from Brazil to the Rhineland by targeted location marketing. The fair works closely with the Brazilian think tank Fundação Getúlio Vargas (FGV), which maintains an office in Cologne, one of the partnership is at the launch of a food and beverage fair. Anufood Brasil is a subsidiary of the Anuga food fair in Cologne, and will go to the São Paulo market in just two weeks.

The German or European headquarter has already established companies such as Braskem (chemicals), Tramontina (cutlery) and WEG (mechanical engineering). Germany is certainly not a low-wage country or even a tax haven, says BBCC Managing Director Saavedra. Nevertheless, Brazilians quickly reached large parts of Europe via Germany and especially via Cologne. "The fact that you can reach many cities and regions in less than two hours from Cologne or Düsseldorf is a very important factor for Brazilians." In addition, there are also good connections to China and other difficult-to-reach regions in Brazil.

**New partner for the fair**

In this context, Koelnmesse also got a new partner from Brazil for the domestic market. Organizer, merchant and entertainment website Omelete based in in São Paulo now hosts the extremely successful pop culture festival Comic Con Experience (CCXP) in Brazil, along with Koelnmesse. "We looked at this in Brazil and we were convinced that this format would also work well in the city of Cologne," says the head of the exhibition, Gerald Böse. The CCXP is the first fair brought from Brazil to Germany. In São Paulo, 260,000 visitors recently arrived in the exhibition halls. In Cologne in June, 70,000 fans are expected for the first CCXP Cologne. More recently, Koelnmesse has been able to count 6,000 visitors and 226 exhibitors from Brazil at all its events on the Rhine, a 31% increase over 2015. "So far we were more familiar with the food industry in Brazil," says Gerald Böse. The fact that it is now possible to bring an event fair to Cologne is a great success not only for us but also for German-Brazilian cooperation.

**By Guido M. Hartmann, DIE WELT**

The article was originally published in German and can be accessed here:
https://www.welt.de/regionales/nrw/article189819657/In-Koeln-fruchtet-di...