by Maddie Smith, International Marketing Program Coordinator, Food Export – Northeast

At Food Export-Midwest and Food Export-Northeast we value your participation in our events and want to do everything possible to continue offering our programs and services for years to come!

To do that, one of the things we ask of suppliers is to complete evaluations after activities take place.

Let’s take a look at what they are, why they are important, when, and how to submit!

WHAT

There are three types of evaluations that we require every supplier to complete:

1.     Initial Evaluation

• Completed at the end of an activity you have participated in, such as a Buyers Mission

2.     Follow Up Evaluation

• Completed four to six months after any activity that you already completed an initial evaluation for

3.     Final Evaluation

• Completed at the end of a Program Year for activities that last the length of the year, like Helpline, Export Advisor Program, or Market Builder.

WHY

When you sign up to participate in a Food Export activity, you commit to completing an evaluation. Food Export utilizes these evaluations to show the USDA’s Foreign Agricultural Service how the annual funding they provide us goes directly to helping U.S. suppliers with their exporting efforts.  By submitting this evaluation, you are helping to ensure that we continue to offer low cost international opportunities for small businesses just like yours.

WHEN

At the end of a program year or four to six months after an activity, an evaluation will show up on your Food Export online portal. By that time, you should be able to reflect on your experience from each activity you participated in and provide us with details about the benefits of the activity.

HOW

The easiest way to find all your outstanding evaluations is to log into your Food Export online portal, go to the “My Home” tab at the top left corner and scroll all the way down to the bottom until you see the “My Evaluations” section.

Tips to Remember:

• If you can only enter a projection, that’s ok.  We know sales take time or happen in foreign currencies.  Please share what you can so we get a snapshot of how the program or service impacted your business. 

• All evaluation data is confidential and will be presented in aggregate to the USDA and FAS.

If you have any more questions, please reach out to the Liaison that covers your state!