Foreign Buyers Seek Washington Products

Foreign Buyers Seek Washington Products

I’m Lacy Gray with Washington Ag Today.

September 9th and 10th twenty foreign buyers from China, Japan, Korea and Mexico will meet in Seattle with Washington wineries and specialty retail food businesses interested in exporting. The meetings are being set up through the WSDA’s International Marketing Program, and will match domestic suppliers of such products as craft beers, honey, frozen berries, and wines with countries that have already shown consumer demand for Washington products. Several of the Washington companies already signed up to participate in the September meetings also participated in the WSDA-sponsored export clinics in April, where they learned about markets in Asia and Mexico.WSDA International Trade Specialist, Rebecca Weber, says bringing qualified foreign buyers and Washington business together is exciting and rewarding for all involved.

WEBER: We’ll be introducing new products, or at least to the buyers it could be new products. And then really focusing on getting information about the different products they might be interested in. What’s been fun, is folks who’ve tried some different products that they haven’t imported previously out of participating in one of these missions. And typically we’ll get folks who are able to make purchases during the course of the mission or through follow-up with the buyers and suppliers.

With the help of WSDA trade specialists more than 200 small and medium sized businesses were able to make international sales totaling $120 million in 2012.

To register for the export buyer meetings, contact WSDA’s Julie Johnson at (360) 902-1940.

I’m Lacy Gray and that’s Washington Ag Today on the Ag Information Network.