Stone-Ideas.com

Ótima repaginada, or “very well redesigned,“ was the most common opinion we heard from Brazilian and foreign exhibitors at the first edition of Marmomac Brazil, held in São Paulo from February 18 to 20, 2025. The advantage of moving the largest natural stone fair in the Latin American subcontinent to the region’s largest hub is obvious. However, it was also clear that this also meant losing its tradition and proximity to the real economic center of Brazil’s stone sector, Espírito Santo (ES). The state accounts for more than 80% of the country’s 5th position among the world leaders in this business and is its leading processor and producer of natural stone.

There was the question, if, with the new fair name (before: Vitória Stone Fair) and its new location, also the show’s management, or a large part of it, would be transferred into foreign hands, more precisely: to the Italian Veronafiere Group.

Let’s take a look at the event’s response in terms of the interests of exhibitors & business, visitors & public, in terms of quantity, quality, form, and content.

We’ll ad the numbers of exhibitors and visitors as soon as we get them from the organizer.

“I have the feeling that I’m already on the third day of the fair,“ Madson Hora, owner of Margramar, one of the country’s largest stone companies, told Stone-Ideas.com on the opening afternoon, summing up a general feeling among dealers. The number of visitors in the exhibition hall more than doubled on the second day and continued to grow on the third and final day. According to the organizers, operators from more than 60 countries were expected to attend, with the United States, China, Mexico, and the United Arab Emirates standing out, with total business expected to exceed 160 million €.

There were 200 brands representing quarries, processing companies, and manufacturers of processing technology from Brazil, Italy, China, Turkey and Greece in an exhibition area of more than 14,000 square meters.

There were a total of 114 booths in the hallways, of which 59 were from stone companies, 29 from input companies, 13 from machinery companies, eleven from service companies and five from industrial and/or commercial associations.

Becky Li, CEO of Xiamen B&I Stone Co, a stone supplying company, first noted that the show had shrunk a bit, but then added that the event was now more modern and attractive. Although she wasn’t very happy with the lateral position of her stand and the proximity of the tool sector, she was satisfied with the contacts. On the second day, she noticed an increase in the number of architects and Latin American distributors compared to her previous experience in the State of Espírito Santo.

“Surprising“ was another word used by nine out of ten of our respondents who exhibit their products at several major international trade shows. They pointed to the growing internationalization of the trade visitors and, among them, the increase in architectural professionals – followed by medium and small marble and granite service providers.

We’ll talk more about architecture and design at Marmomac Brazil later.

As for the foreign buyers, the answers weren’t so coherent, but we think it’s appropriate to say that the United States and China alternated with Latin American countries (especially Mexico) in the first mentions, and Australia and Asia in general (especially India) in the second mentions.

You may be wondering, dear readers, about the role of Italy as birthplace of Marmomac and why we did not mention its representatives, so far. Well, we didn’t ask them about the aforementioned aspects in order to avoid the self-promotion that is a duty of every event organizer. It must be said that, after the initial greeting by Flavia Milaneze, CEO of Milanez & Milaneze SA, a subsidiary of Veronafiere, the first speeches of the opening ceremony were by Italian businessmen and authorities, while messages from Brazilian businessmen and authorities were left to the end of it.

Could this be a sign of a new orientation of Brazil’s largest stone fair?

The response of Brazilian entrepreneurs and association leaders to the question was unanimous, even enthusiastic, in the sense that cooperation is far superior to competition. Frederico Robison, owner of Marbrasa, one of the country’s largest stone companies, began by acknowledging what he called Italy’s well-deserved role as the number one trendsetter in this sector.

He also highlighted the exchange of know-how, objectively mentioning the partnership attitude of the Italians in technical doubts about the best way to solve certain adverse circumstances in the exploitation of certain finds within a stone quarry.

No “takeover“ of the Brazilian market by Marmomac

When asked about fears of a supposed “takeover“ of the Brazilian market by Marmomac, the vice-president of the Brazilian Natural Stone Association Centrorochas, Fábio Cruz, was also surprised: “I actually loved this insinuation, because Marmomac is the biggest natural stone sales platform in the world, Verona is the biggest exhibition in the world in this sector and they indeed bought 50% (of the Brazilian stone exhibition) a few years ago. This is the first Marmomac outside Italy, and if they’ve decided to do it here, it’s a sign to all the other countries that we are the big trend of the moment.”

According to technical and economic criteria established with the Brazilian Export Promotion Government Agency APEX, Brazil’s priority markets are Australia, Mexico, the United States, the United Arab Emirates, China, Italy, India and Poland.

As for the Persian Gulf countries – which sent a mission of negotiators to the São Paulo show – Cruz believes that Brazilian salespeople need to better understand the Arab culture of negotiation: “We are very used to doing business in the West. The Arabs are very affectionate, which is very dear to Brazilians, but we still haven’t mastered their way of doing business. The Italians, by the way, have been doing this very well for a long time.”

In 2024 Brazil achieved U$7.8 million dollars (6697.1 tons) in exports to the Persian Gulf (Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, Iraq, Iran, and Kuwait) with a growth of 27.3% compared to the previous year, according to Centrorochas.

Many booths with new design

Returning to the theme of architecture and design, it is worth noting some evidence of the implementation of a Brazilian institutional and business strategy in these areas. The first part of this is the “repaginada“ or redesign of the booths, compared to what was seen at the Vitoria Fair. Both the building (its exterior and support facilities) and the content of the fair represent a clear leap in quality, acknowledged without any resistance from the ES state notables, who clearly lead the sector in Brazil.

It’s also significant that the conference program had sustainability as main topic.

Finally, and this deserves a separate report in Stone-Ideas.com, there was the launch of “Stone In“ magazine, which focuses on the intersection of contemporary architecture (exterior and interior) and design with the natural stone sector, with an eye on young Brazilian professionals. Edited by Cíntia Miguel and Isabela Avancini, the publication is their personal initiative, personally supported by the CEO of Marmomacc Brazil, Flávia Milaneze, and the Vice President of the Brazilian Natural Stone Association (Centrorochas), Fábio Cruz. The aim of the magazine is to bring the subjects closer to Brazilian entrepreneurs, also in terms of the language and terminology of the young creatives.

A large number of very young listeners at the lectures

The best concrete indication of a good start in this direction was the conspicuous presence of a large, very young audience who constantly occupied all or at least three quarters of the auditorium devoted to lectures. They could have been picked out of the pages of “Stone In“ magazine – and some of them were. In the queues at the entrance (free, but with compulsory registration) and in the corridors, one had the impression that the design, fashion and architecture faculties in a (fictitious) building next door had simultaneously sent their students to the Marmomac Brazil pavilion. They were clearly a minority, but they were noticeable.

Their journeys through the site were analogous to the flow in an aquarium, where small fish move in groups to the surface in search of air (the more inspiring company booths), return immediately and at a somewhat accelerated pace to the nutrients in the background (the lectures in the auditorium), and become noticeably thinner at the end of such a program.

Some of the booths hosted informal and clearly improvised live-presentations by architects and designers, creating short jams of these young, colorful fish in peaceful contrast to the larger, grayer and more sober ones.

“For a long time, we in Brazil focused on uniform stones. It’s only in the last years that the use of stones with strong patterns and colors, the exotic stones, have really taken center stage,“ said interior designer Larissa Abreu, who brought together dozens of professionals with Stone In magazine highlighting the young designer Natalia Scarpati and the architects Karolinna Venturi and Rômulo Pegoretti to talk about the topic.

Coincidentally or not, these corridors in some way reflected a mosaic of the most prosperous face of Brazil’s young but already maturing society.

Marmomac Brazil, 2026, February 24 – 26

Photos: Veronafiere / Marcelo de Oliveira