OUR WEBLOG: EXCERPTS OF EXPORTS
Tuesday, February 26, 2008
A Brief on Cheese and What It’s Labeled
I just read an interesting article in the Wall Street Journal about a dispute between Italy and Germany. The subject is cheese, specifically Parmesan, and the fact that Germany has been labeling their cheese Parmesan.
Italy took exception and took their case to the European Court of Justice back in 2003. The ruling, just today, while in favor of Italy was not a quick remedy. It has been several years and several million dollars later.
The European Court of Justice made the ruling that cheese from Parma, Italy is the only one that can be labeled Parmesan. Germany in labeling its cheese Parmesan, violated EU food origin rules. Germany countered that Parmesan is a “generic term for a type of hard, crumbly cheese that is often grated over food and cannot claim an Italian uniqueness”.
The court disagreed, saying Parmesan was “clearly a translation of “Parmigiano Reggiano.’” Although Germany will not be fined, it does have to change the name of its cheese. And Italy must monitor the situation and report any infractions to the “German Authorities”.
I am not taking sides here as I love all the countries of Europe each with its individual charms. But I have to say that one of the highlights of my trips to Germany has always been their delicious cheeses. They have some of the best that I have ever tasted making cheese the staple of my diet while there. The next time I travel to Germany, I think that I will go on a diet beforehand allowing me to indulge and be back to my normal weight when I return. That’s the plan, at least.
Sunday, February 10, 2008
Ask the Experts
Valuable Information from the Global Gazette
Q. My company manufactures food rubs and barbecue sauces. The products have done very well in California and the Southwest and we are getting orders from other parts of the U.S. We are also getting some international orders from our Website which has us thinking about exporting. Our company is relatively new, only five years old, and we don’t know if we are ready to export.
A. The good thing, and probably the bad also, is that successful exporting takes careful planning, time and patience. It will take a minimum of one year before you make any headway.
If you know your products and your domestic customer well, have processes that are relatively fail-safe and excess manufacturing capacity, you should start investigating the viability of your products abroad.
A good place to start is Canada. The market is not huge but Canadians are open to U.S. products. And Canada can be your test market in exporting. Any mistakes that you make will be more easily remedied when you target a country like Canada. Toronto is also one of the most multi-cultural cities in the world with sophisticated tastes.
Finally there are no tariffs and no non-tariff duties because of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA).
Where to go and what to do:
1. If you want step by step assistance, I suggest that you work with a consultant, such as our Experts in Exports.
If you want a peek good overview of the Canadian market, we will be offering a food audit of the Canadian market in March. It will cover labeling requirements, demographics, shelf space and competition among
other topics.
2. Contact the FDA in your region.
I have worked with the FDA and incorporated their services into total export marketing packages for my clients.
3. Other public sector service providers are the economic development departments in your city and state.
4. Food trade shows in the U.S. are very international in attendance. You can get good leads and help determine product acceptability in various parts of the world. Make sure that you follow-up right after the show. Memories are short even when your product is terrific. Also keep following up even if you don’t get a response. Other cultures don’t always work that way. We specialize in developing effective surveys that visitors to your booth will respond to.
One final word of caution. If you decide to export, don’t target more than two markets at one time. It will be all that you can handle… well.
For timely information about everything international, sign up for our newsletters, the Global Gazette
Tuesday, January 29, 2008
Les egouts de Paris
You recognize the Eiffel Tower in Paris. (I included this picture to get your attention.) But what do you know about what lies beneath the Eiffel Tower?
When I developed my website to promote export and export services and training, I promised that it would not only be informative, but fun. I include information and resources that appeal to the young and young at heart so that you can combine your business trips abroad with a family vacation. Over the next weeks, I will be adding resources on activities and interesting sites for the children as well as the parents.
Now I don’t know if a sewer tour in Paris will strike anyone in the family as fun. I can say it is different since I myself took this tour with students a few decades ago. That was long before the Internet so finding unusual things to do required scanning the fine print in tourist books.
The sewer tours are covered in the book, Take Your Kids to Europe, 5th: How to Travel Safely (and Sanely) in Europe with Your Children by Cynthia W. Harriman. While I haven’t read this particular book, it does get many good reviews and with used copies at less than a dollar, what can you lose!
The sewers of Paris were planned during the reign of Napoleon I and constructed primarily during the reign of Napoleon III, the nephew of Napoleon I. Construction took 50 years. There was an expression they were taking sewage from all in the street to all in the sewer. Sewage from the bath, from the chamber pot and from the kitchen was typically dumped out the window and into the gutters in the street. It became fashionable and also functional when women’s dresses were shortened to eliminate contact with the vile stuff.
I don’t remember a lot about the sewer tour but I do remember that it did not have the same romance or sense of adventure as Jean Valjean’s exploits in Les Miserables. Nor did I get a sentimental feeling about my excursion in the sewers of Paris when I saw the Phantom of the Opera. But it was sort of fun and very different. I hardly find anyone who has taken le tour or le voyage if they went by boat when it was available.
While in Paris, you might want to stay in accomodations that also offer a different experience. I try never to stay in a hotel but rather a pension or a small hotel. One example is Hotel Saint-Merry in Paris, a small botique hotel in the Marais qarter of Paris. It looks like a great place and the reviews are excellent.
While I have not as yet had the opportunity to stay at one of the unusual hotels, I plan to on my next trip abroad. Staying in an unusual hotel is often not any more expensive than a regular hotel. But guaranteed it is much more memorable. .
Tuesday, January 22, 2008
Sugar, Freer Trade and NAFTA
The source of sugar, considered a commodity, can be traced back thousands of years to India and China. Key promoters of the sweet stuff are Alexander the Great and Marco Polo, the great trader and explorer from Venice. Nearly three centuries later, tropical America became a manufacturer of sugar cane.
During the Napoleonic Wars, England blockaded sugar imports from the Caribbean to Continental Europe. Napoleon, a creative problem solver, found another source of sugar; the sugar beet. Sugar cane was no longer the sole source of the commodity. Nor could it be used to force surrender in time of war. And long before the turn of the century, sugar cane and sugar beet were competitors in Continental Europe.
The modern sugar industry of today enjoys the intervention of governments throughout the world. (I guess we gotta have that sugar with a worldwide consumption of 120 million tons per year and a growth rate of 2 million tons per annum.) That the sugar trade is among the last planks of the fifteen year old NAFTA bears that out. And a NAFTA market of 425 million consumers is reason enough.
Sugar,a protected commodity in the U.S for decades, benefitted from guaranteed pricing, import quotas and allotments to growers. This has resulted in the greatly inflated price of sugar in the U.S. But, according to NAFTA, all is about to change. But will it? Since Mexico can now sell virtually unrestricted in the U.S., there are two farm bills introduced in the U.S. Senate and House.
The bills would have the U.S. Department of Agriculture buy sugar imports from Mexico and sell them to ethanol producers at a much lower rate than what they paid. Sugar producers from Mexico have the opportunity; U.S. taxpayers will make up the difference.
Domestic sugar producers want sugar exports from Mexico “restrained.” In effect, they want to “keep it the same” regarding exports on both sides and to disallow any new producers. Since sugar is a warm weather commodity, Canada would not be included and it would be a sidebar binational agreement.
I will let you decide what you think of all this. This is not a political blog. However I want to show how important it is to be aware of different treaties and their effects on your industry both domestically and globally.
I worked with a specialty cheese producer in Michigan who increased her business by 25% because I told her about a trade dispute. In the 1990s, there was an import restriction of cheese to the U.S. This restriction was in response to another restriction; U.S. beef into Europe. My client viewed the RFQs she was receiving on a daily basis as coming from “shoppers”. Once I told her this bit of timely information, they were “shoppers” no more but rather customers. And she increased her sales and her workforce. Good for her company and good for the economy.
This is an example where exporting was not the way to increase sales. And I suppose there will come a day when there is truly free trade; where it will be best price, best product. But until there is real free trade, knowing where there is opportunity is what to do. Subscribe to my blog and return to my website to get informed and up-to-date and learn about opportunities for your company.
Friday, January 11, 2008
Wanna go global? Read this first!
Before you commit your time and resources to exporting, you might want to weigh the pros and cons of entering global markets. Companies that should seriously consider exporting are those that have good consistent sales, evidence that their products have potential outside the domestic marketplace...and patience. You might also be experiencing increased interest and sales from your website or trade show participation. If so, this is why you should consider exporting:
1. U.S. products have a good reputation worldwide. While not always the cheapest, the quality is consistent and the products innovative.
2. The U.S. dollar is low and probably won’t change substantially before you make good inroads and build some relationships abroad. You may be able to compete very successfully even with added transportation costs, tariffs and ways of distributing your products in global markets. You won’t know unless you investigate.
3. You are probably competing internationally even though your sales may be primarily domestic. Who are your competitors? Are they businesses from around the block or around the world? With freer trade, your competition is oftentimes not someone you know.
However, entering global markets isn’t always a good business decision.I have worked with many companies that believe that exporting is a way to prop-up lagging domestic sales. I usually convince them that exporting is not a good stop gap measure to employ while waiting for traditional sales to rise. Companies that don’t take my advice typically spend months in pursuit of export markets with limited results. By the time they start to make some headway, usually in 12 to 18 months, domestic sales pick-up. Then they re-focus their efforts once again on their domestic customers. Any interest and good will that they have built is an opportunity wasted as they probably won’t get a second chance. So when shouldn’t you look to export markets to build sales?
1. If your sales have dropped, exporting is not quick and it’s not easy. You will have to learn a different culture, a different history, perhaps a different language and certainily a different way of doing business. You are better off spending your time and resources to regain and retain domestic market share.
2. In order to regain your domestic marketshare, investigate the weak spots in your products or processes and fix them. Good processes and good products are critical not only domestically but also if you would like to consider exporting in the future.
3. If you try to export at the same time you try to regain market share, you will undoubtedly spread yourself too thin and not be successful in either arena.
So what to do? The mantra in real estate is location, location, location. For export, it is prepare, prepare, prepare.
Entering global markets is like starting over again...and that is often difficult. You have to carefully prepare an export plan as you did your business plan. And your export plan will have to address more variables than your business plan.There are different ways of doing business in different countries and usually within different regions of those countries. There are different ways of communicating, different ways of forming relationships and different business hours. There are marketing materials to be translated and websites altered to address global audiences. There are many resources out there, the free, the nearly free and the costly. Learning who does what is sometimes a challenge. But now you have a great advantage. Your products are tested, accepted and valued. And exporting is also fun, challenging and has the potential of added marketshare.
Wednesday, December 26, 2007
How long does it take to get a passport? If this is your first passport, this is what to do.
T’is the season for looking back at what you accomplished this year and what you want to achieve in ‘08. If out of country travel, either for business or pleasure, is what you are planning, you will need a passport.*
If this is your first passport,
1. Download the passport application form from http://travel.state.gov.passport. You will also find processing agencies in your area and be able to check on the status of your application once you have applied.
2. Complete the form but do not sign it. You will need to sign it in front of the passport agent.
3. Bring proof of U.S. citizenship which can be a:
- Certified birth certificate or
- Certificate of citizenship or
- Naturalization certificate
4. Proof of Identity which can be a:
- Valid photo ID or
- Driver’s License
Take the above to a passport agency; most provide passport photo service for an additional fee. If the passport agency does not provide this service, you will need to get your passport photos ahead of time. What you need to know before having your picture taken:
1. No hats (so no hiding a bad hair day).
2. No sunglasses
3. No teeth or in official parlance “closed-mouth smiling” only. Nothing to do with happy or only slightly happy but rather teeth can impede face recognition technology.
4. No photos from a vending machine.
To answer the question…how long does it take to get a passport? You will receive your passport and all your documentation four to six weeks after receipt of information. Allow for extra time if you apply the first half of the year.
* Having lived in two border states and not having needed a passport to enter Canada or Mexico or return, times have changed. While you can still enter some countries without a passport, you cannot return to the U.S. without one. This requirement will soon cover air, ship, rail and auto travel sometime in 2008 so you might as well apply for a passport now.
Update on Passports/papers to travel to Mexico and Canada.
Starting 1 February 2008, U.S. residents who frequently travel to Canada, Mexico, the Caribbean or Bermuda can apply for an alternative to the passport which is a passport card. The Passport Card is cheaper and smaller and can fit in your wallet. The cost is $45. for adults, $35 for children and lasts 10 years for adults and 5 years for children. This is only for travel by land or by sea.
When traveling by air, you need a passport. (See above). These cards will be issued by the Spring. If you don’t have a passport, and are traveling by land or sea, you must have government issued ID, like a driver’s license and proof of citizenship like a birth certificate.
Wednesday, July 11, 2007
New to Export
I have only known one company whose first export market was China. They admit to being very lucky in successfully exporting to this complicated market. China with its different languages, dialects, systems of government, and culture is difficult. However what makes their going into China so noteworthy is not their success there. After all China is a huge market. It is nearly unbelievable that they did so without making irrevocable mistakes.
Companies researching potential export markets, should investigate countries with the most similarities in language, culture, taste, life style. Countries that readily come to mind are Canada, where In-Compasse is representing SW companies at a taste testing in August, Australia and the U.K.
In spite of commonalities, don’t assume that Canadians or Brits are just like us.
Nor do they consider themselves to be.
What to do:
- Learn about the history
- Investigate how business is done
- Understand expressions but don’t necessarily use them
I just found different websites that can help you. Great stuff on the U.K. with walking maps, information on exhibitions and books on history. What I love the most is hearing different accents. There are definitions of expressions and explanations of pronunciations. This is one of the sites I visit when I need a dose of the Mother Country. I hope you find it worthwhile and fun.
http://www.collectbritain.co.uk/collections/dialects
If you love to eat and are traveling to Cornwall, other websites are
I don’t think they serve pie, mash and eels which is a dish from the East end of London. But if you are there, try some. I did.
All these websites are fun. And so is learning about where you’re going and where you want to do business. And who says you can’t have fun and make money at the same time. After all, I do.
Monday, May 28, 2007
Is it exporting or is it international trade…what’s in a term?
I am new to blogging, in fact this is my first blog-ta-da. The exporting that I am referring to in the title, selling products outside the U.S., is not a highly covered topic in the land of blogs. Exporting, the computer term is. Blogs on exporting (commerce) take a back seat, way back, to the computer terminology in the number of blogs. Exporting (as in a product) blogs primarily consist of the basics…or the top ten pitfalls…of exporting.
Now trade seems to be a better word. However, trade also competes with the stock market and sports teams world wide. Commerce is another term relative to exporting. And commerce leads to e-commerce, which is one way to trade and export. But the best term I have found so far is international trade. The topics are broad; the content comprehensive. You can learn about trade deals, tariffs, different markets, culture and language from all kinds of sources. So international trade it is. At least for now.
This is just a little bit of fun but it makes a point. To have the exact term saves time when researching. Spelling is not so important with the ”did you mean…” feature which is a little like traveling in France. Heading off in the wrong direction, I would realize my mistake the minute I made the wrong turn. But I invariably was provided a ”did you mean” opportunity. A little way down the road was a street sign saying toutes directions, all directions, allowing me to return and do ”what I really meant” which was to turn on the right street. But whatever your terminology and whatever your wrong turns, exporting, trade, commerce or international trade, while sometimes frustrating, is generally rewarding and always an adventure.