Northeastern U.S. fish and shellfish exporters had a prime opportunity to meet with global seafood buyers without leaving New England. Again, this year, Food Export–Northeast hosted its popular Seafood Buyers Mission held in conjunction with the Seafood Expo North America trade show in Boston, Massachusetts from March 14 – 18.
As part of this event, suppliers could request one-on-one meetings with vetted international seafood importers and distributors. This year’s delegation of fourteen buyers represented eleven different countries including: Brazil, China, France, Germany, Hong Kong, The Netherlands, Peru, Saudi Arabia, South Korea, United Arab Emirates and Vietnam. One of the buyer participants shared that he “liked the diversity of types of products that suppliers can offer, not concentrated on just one species, and the time spent meeting with each one was good to understand the business.”
Food Export–Northeast optimized exporters’ experiences not only with valuable trade connections but also seasoned market expertise and onsite support. Several of Food Export’s In-Market Representatives were invited to share updates on their markets and discuss individual suppliers’ questions at meetings throughout the mission and during the Seafood Expo North America show. Staff from Food Export’s Branded Program also met with suppliers to help them discover any untapped ways to use the program’s cost-share marketing funding.
A new supplier participant remarked: “We realized, as a young company, that export represents a fabulous opportunity and we feel that Food Export is on our side to help us actively succeed.”
In addition to the one-on-one meetings with Northeast U.S. fish and shellfish exporters, the international buyers had the chance to learn about the value, variety and sustainability of Northeast U.S. fish and shellfish through a day-long educational seminar presented by regional fish and shellfish experts. While buyers sampled products ranging from Jonah crab to scup, they learned about the fisheries management practices for each species.
As a result of the one-on-one buyers meetings scheduled by Food Export, Northeast fish and shellfish suppliers reported 137 new buyer-seller introductions, 5 export sales to a new market, 52 new distributorships and US$15,607,000 in actual export sales and an additional US$10,160,000 in projected export sales.