U.S. companies seeking growth and profitability should consider developing a strategic plan to enter and/or sell more of their products in China.  No other market in the world has the size, breadth and growth rates as China.  On a recent trip to China, I was impressed not only with the massive consumption of imported food and beverage products by Chinese consumers, but also the plethora of Chinese traders and retailers which plan to increase the number and amount of imported foods.  Savvy international companies understand this, and have made plans to exploit this growth and the Chinese consumer’s “hunger” for imported food products.  “Asia clearly represents the most significant growth opportunity on a go-forward …Read More »

Peter Guyer was a keynote speaker at the Intertribal Agricultural Council’s Export Seminar in Las Vegas December 7-8, 2011.  The American Indian Foods (AIF) program is supported by the USDA and assists Native American Indians export food and agricultural products worldwide:

http://www.indianaglink.com/

From the Pudget Sound Business Journal:

It may surprise you to know what Washington state’s biggest export to China is these days. Airplanes? Apples? Software? Wine?

Guess again.

The biggest export in volume terms is the oldest and most low-tech farm product imaginable: high-quality hay for dairy cows.

The reason — rising incomes that make consumer items such as milk, cheese and ice cream affordable — explains a lot about what’s going on in Asia. It also points to the growing opportunity for U.S. companies to do business there.

Read the full article »

Listening to the media these days, we are lead to believe that Western Europe is about to sink into the Atlantic Ocean. Doom and gloom surrounding the European debt crisis, downgraded credit ratings, austerity measures, public strikes and riots, banking failures, shrinking economies, sensationalized photos and consumer malaise combine to make one feel that the final curtain is falling for the Eurozone (the 17 nations which utilize the Euro as their currency).  Time magazine recently published an article titled “The End of Europe.”  A European newspaper headline today read, “Berlin experts fear euro break-up from bail-out escalation.”  However, on a recent trip to Europe and attendance at the world’s largest trade show for the food industry, Europe is still obviously very open for business.

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AMI’s Sharon Sappington promotes a client’s product line at the ANUGA show in Cologne, Germany. ANUGA is the world’s largest trade event for the global food and beverage industry: http://www.anuga.com/en/anuga/home/index.php.

Brazil is the world’s 7th largest economy in terms of Gross Domestic Product (GDP). It has a free-market system and the 2nd largest economy in the Western Hemisphere. Brazil is one of the fastest-growing major economies in the world, with a GDP growth rate in 2010 of 7.5%. Finally, Brazil is expected to become one of the five largest economies in the world within the next decade.

Brazil is also a major consumer of food. With a population of 191 million, Brazil is one of the world’s leading consumers of cereals, pulses, and meats. Domestic demand is likely to grow as Brazil’s population gains 23 million people by 2018. Income growth, a more balanced income distribution, …Read More »

Not only Washington food and beverage manufacturers, but also companies throughout the U.S., are now exporting their products worldwide with lower costs and higher success rates.

Published in the Puget Sound Business Journal:

Gov. Chris Gregoire, through the Washington Export Initiative, is working to boost foreign trade in Washington by 30 percent during the next four years. President Barack Obama’s National Export Initiative seeks to double U.S. exports by 2015.

Both government leaders see exports as a way to improve the economy. But they are not looking only to the big public companies to do this. Small and medium-sized companies will play an important role.

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