Evanilda Gomes da Silva and Stefan Hampel are sitting on a sofa, looking adoringly into each other's eyes. "I am very happy at the moment," she says in Portuguese. "I am too," he adds in German. "I have found myself the perfect wife."

Evanilda, aged 26, and Stefan, aged 31, aren't bothered by the fact that they don't speak the same language. They were introduced for the first time last week, through a matchmaking agency that arranges marriages exclusively between Brazilian women and German men. "As soon as I saw him I knew I would marry him," enthuses Evanilda, a teacher from Campina Grande, a town 120 miles from Recife.

The couple had exchanged a few letters - translated by the agency - before Stefan flew in from Stuttgart. They got on well instantly and decided they wanted to spend the rest of their lives together.

"You can't decide anything from the photos. You have to see the person. But I think a week is long enough to make up your mind about marriage. Love will take longer, but I think we can fall in love," says Stefan, a computer programmer. On Sunday she went home to tell her parents and pick up her passport, birth certificate and medical report. The couple flew to Germany on Friday.

Evanilda and Stefan's story is far from unique in the north east of Brazil. In fact, you could almost call it the norm. The German consulate in Recife processes one visa application a day from women with German fiancees (often whom they have never seen). About 80 per cent are successful.

It is a vast migratory wave. Official estimates claim that about 10,000 Brazilians move to Germany every year, with virtually all of that number being women and their children from previous marriages. In the last three years the Recife consulate has had no visa applications from Brazilian men.

Brazilian women are queuing up to leave. The Agencia Matrimonial Brazil-Exterior (Ambe), which was used by Stefan, is the most respectable agency and has 1,400 middle-class women on its books. In eight years it claims to have married off 250 women - and it has the photos to prove it, several albums full of mulatta girls in white wedding dresses next to German-looking men in suits.

There are several reasons for the phenomenon, says Marconi Santana, whose mother Lindinalva Ferraz founded Ambe. First, the north east of Brazil has too many women. The Brazilian Statistical Institute confirms this: Recife, a city of 1.3 million people, has 100,000 more women than men.

Secondly, he adds, it is a meeting of minds: Brazilian women are sick and tired of Brazilian men, who are by and large unfaithful and often unable to find the finances to support a family. "The object of a Brazilian woman's life is to get a loyal husband, a house and a child," he says. "But they can't find that here."

Equally, many Germans would prefer a loyal and passionate Latin wife rather than an emancipated European one. "The women here are much more tactile and attentive. A Brazilian woman will make her husband breakfast - many Germans say they have never seen that before," adds Marconi.

Stefan agrees: "The girls you meet here are very romantic. They have very deep feelings. I have never met anyone like that before. I doubt such a woman exists in Germany.

"Brazilian girls like Germans because they say that we are loyal, cultured, intelligent and solid workers - all the qualities they say they can't find in Brazilian men."

AMBE'S business took a slight dip a few years ago because of competition from similar agencies working in eastern European countries like Poland and Russia, but the Internet is causing it to rise again. Letters, which used to take weeks because of the Brazilian postal service, can now be sent in a few seconds.

Marla Rufino, a 23-year-old teacher, is holding the print-out of a translated email from her 37-year-old future husband. "It's no joke - you really are beautiful," it reads. "You appear very natural and I don't have the slightest doubt that I will be able to love you and live all our days together."

The ages of Ambe's clients have also been dropping, as it becomes socially more acceptable. At first most of the men were over 50, now they are under 40.

While Ambe is the top end of the market, the Brazil-Germany dating game is a vast industry. Look in the local paper and there are always ads from Germans looking for wives and dating agencies looking for clients.

Speak to any prostitute and they dream of moving to Germany. For many Brazilians, it is the gateway to the whole European community. There are several cases of girls, according to the consulate, who once they have their visa will move into other countries to work.

There are other cases of girls who become virtual sex slaves back in Germany when their prince charming turns out to be a frog. But the problem also works the other way around. In many instances a gullible German will meet a Brazilian girl - often prostitutes are waiting speculatively at the airport when the weekly flight from Frankfurt gets in - who then abuses his generosity.

"Germans are easy prey. They have a guilt complex which makes them feel they need to save the world," says one German. "Often a German will get a girlfriend, and buy her an apartment. When he gets back for a second time the girl's Brazilian boyfriend or pimp is living there. Other tourists like the Italians are not so stupid."