​Allports’ Operational Excellence Manager and ECO Board Member Kiffani Iverson, shares how building lasting professional relationships can help local exporters and importers to build their companies globally.
In September of 2016, in response to the World Health Organization’s (WHO) addition of the United States to the list of Zika-infected countries, China’s General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine (AQSIQ) implemented a fumigation requirement for all cargo being imported from the US. At the time, the cargo Allports was facilitating was already on the water and being shipped to China and was not admitted into the country, causing uncertainty amongst exporters. Allports proceeded to utilize their network with their global agent partners to locate a local Chinese contact for their customers who could help navigate the new requirements on the importing of cargo from the west coast.
Another instance that Kiffani Iverson mentioned was the recent shipment of beans, peas, and lentils to India where the buyer walked away from the cargo that had arrived in-country. This issue required Allports to utilize their extensive network to contact an agent and work with the Oregon exporter to find a new buyer for the products and facilitate the necessary steps for the potential new buyer to get the product into the country with relative ease. The great professional relationships and swift actions steps showed this Oregon based Customs broker and freight forwarding company’s true excellence in providing service to exporters and importers.  

Verbio’s President and ECO Board member Virginia Joplin, shares their experience and what a small, specialized international language service firm can deliver to international diplomats and global organizations.  

​In June, ​Verbio sent two of their French conference interpreters to assist NATO representatives in important, high level meetings and business tours being held in Seattle. The use of interpreters was critical to key conversations between the NATO representatives’ and leaders of multinational organizations throughout the Seattle area. NATO initially had problems identifying French interpreters on the west coast due to low availability. The French American Chamber of Commerce of the Pacific Northwest responded to this challenge with an introduction of Verbio to NATO. Joplin was able to provide rapid assistance, securing two French conference interpreters. Then, during the meetings one of the NATO representative's Italian interpreters fell ill, straining the resources and leaving their other interpreter without a partner -- it's customary in simultaneous interpretation for interpreters to work in pairs and stagger their translation time due to the demanding nature of real time translation.  Verbio interpreters stepped in to seamlessly support the lead Italian interpreter enabling an effective dialog of the NATO parties to continue. The right expertise, the right resources, and swift action showed true excellence of this Oregon based translation company. 

Cliqa, Inc. was founded by Edgar Navas in 2014 to focus on how immigrants can efficiently and affordably send money home without paying a service charge. The platform created is a phone app that lets users send digital payments instead of cash, allowing users to pay for electricity bills, phone bills, etc. remotely for their families outside the U.S. Cliqa now has 30,000 active customers that send money overseas at least once a month and can be used in 30 countries. 

One of the problems that became apparent to Edgar Navas early on was the need for capital for further marketing and product development. In order to reach the mass market, Navas turned to social media and a few celebrity partners to market their product online. This led to Cliqa Digital, a platform that connects the Latino community offline and online. This platform allows Cliqa to drive its customers back to its payments platform while also marketing itself as a source for potential brands to enter the Latino market. 

Want to read more about this amazing company? Check out the Portland Business Journal for the original article here. 

​High Impact Technology, LLC (HIT) completed the last phase of a Gold Key Service (GKS) at the FEINDEF Military Trade Show in Madrid, Spain.  This B2B matchmaking service delivered by the U.S. Commercial Service, U.S. Department of Commerce opened doors, maximized in-country time and business connections and was largely delivered on the trade show floor.

The Gold Key Service turned out to be a very efficient use of time and resources to meet face-to-face with 11 pre-screened, and vetted companies during the 3-day event. Representing the U.S. Commercial Service from the U.S. Embassy based in Madrid, was Carlos Perezminguez, Senior International Trade Specialist, who helped build and execute HIT’s GKS. Carlos successfully established professional meetings with senior management connections, and formed a comfortable bridge between HIT and these prospective partner companies. This allowed HIT to make a pitch of their protection-based products and services to a target audience, already briefed, and welcoming of HIT's product/technology information.  Having the GKS line up with the FEINDEF Military Trade Show worked well in securing face-time with top notch sales representative companies at the show. Having the local U.S. Embassy introduction established an off the bat warm, working relationship. 

Following the show and meetings, and as a final in-country step to the service, Cameron Werker, Senior Commercial Officer at the Embassy, provided a concise debrief to close the loop, and lay out a plan for next steps on how best to push the sales efforts in Spain forward. Our experience proved the GKS was a great asset particularly considering the limited time and resources we had in country. HIT truly appreciated the U.S. Commercial Service/U.S. Embassy team's professionalism and the positive foundation it helped us build in-country with these established Spanish companies. Now the follow-up/technical information work begins! 

Oregon and Pacific Northwest cheese makers are working to develop new markets and increasing exports to Asia. Cheese exports hit a high in May, even with a drop in sales to China as retaliatory tariffs continue. Growing disposable income in the prime Asia markets is likely to support the continued growth in demand for new varieties of cheese over the next few years. Read more on the Dairy Export Council’s blog.

The Oregon Dairy Council was supported by the Export Council of Oregon’s Barry Horowitz at the HOFEX show in Hong Kong (May 2019). This is one of Asia’s leading food and hospitality trade shows.  By the numbers, this 4-day event showcases 2800 exhibitors from 74 countries, with more than 42,000 visiting trade buyers. Oregon cheese makers expect numerous deals to follow!

​At Fruit Logistica 2019 in Berlin, Felix Instruments – Applied Food Science, of Vancouver WA launched the Avocado Quality Meter which uses near infrared analysis to assess avocado dry matter – a key indicator of the ultimate eating quality of an avocado.
 
The company mission is to provide fresh produce professionals with the tools to make data-driven decisions. Quality meters can be used post-harvest, or pre-harvest to manage the crop and select an optimal harvest date. Ripening facilities can use the instruments to achieve best results and reduce spoilage. “We have already shipped more than 30 avocado meters and plan to continue with around 25 devices per month. Our customers are growers and packers from Mexico, Peru, Spain, Russia, USA. We have distributors in approximately 30 countries, so equipment is available worldwide” says Felix.
 
Why are international trade shows good for new product launch? Felix points out, “At launch, there are typically very few reference accounts for a given product so live demonstrations are a reasonable substitute.  Further, most of our business is earned by referral and that includes both existing clients and contacts that have seen the product [sometimes at a trade show] and mention it to a colleague.”

High Impact Technology "HIT" is sharing a booth with our local customer at the 5 day long IDEX international defense trade show here in Abu Dhabi, UAE. We are one of about 120 U.S. companies representing their goods in the USA Pavilion.
 
Of the approximately 50,000 people at IDEX, we were honored to meet with and show our technologies to HH Sheik Mohamed Bin Zayad Al Nahyan - the acting President of the UAE.  We have been protecting his country's vehicles for 3 years now and he wanted to thank our team for saving UAE lives. Quite an honor for HIT and our local customer Continuum-ME.
 
IDEX is the largest Middle East based military show and over 80 countries are represented here.
 
HIT is proud to have 7 different companies at this trade show showing their vehicles which have our protection technology installed on them.

​We had quite a bit of rain on our final day in Singapore on Friday. But a tropical rainstorm in the tropics is no surprise and the extra rain only added a few minutes to our travel time to and from the trade show. The visitor crowd did seem a bit smaller, especially in the morning, but more or less stayed that way throughout the day. Once again, the traffic through our booth held up very well and we had very little of either our cheese or ice cream samples left at the end of the day.
 
Many good meetings were held during the day and we had a repeat visit from Mrs. Lee, the very enthusiastic customer who came by yesterday and called her store manager from our booth. Continued contact with Mrs. Lee and her preferred market are planned to continue in the future and a visit to her local store took place this afternoon. Many other ideas regarding a new market plan and other projects were discussed.
 
Once again our group split up in order to begin our various departures back to the US. Others of us, plus a former colleague, now with Lamb Weston, and her new manager, who are also here for the FHA show, came along with us for our tour to Lamb Weston.
 
Of all the reactions people have to seeing new things here in Asia, I think the best one is the reaction that people have when they see the panorama of the Port of Singapore from the Port’s viewing platform at the top of their Headquarters: container cranes as far as you can see, numerous ships of various types at anchor in the harbor, and the obvious level of frantic activity going on where ever one looks. In addition, because very few people are familiar with the work and activity that go on inside a large international seaport, the wonder in the eyes of first-time visitors when they are driven ‘inside the gate’ of the world’s second busiest container port is a great sight! Of the members of our small group of visitors to the Port of Singapore today, four of us were first-time visitors and the looks of wonder once again were visible on their faces. 
 
The Port visit marked the end of our Singapore trade mission trip. We all split up for dinner, some of us heading to the airport, others leaving early Saturday morning and during the day. It’s been a great trip, lots of activity and new colleagues met and the beginning of a new phase of our product development work here in SE Asia. We’re not quite there yet, but market entry is getting very close and I look forward to one day being able to announce the first shipments of cheese or ice cream to the area.

​We had quite a bit of rain on our final day in Singapore on Friday. But a tropical rainstorm in the tropics is no surprise and the extra rain only added a few minutes to our travel time to and from the trade show. The visitor crowd did seem a bit smaller, especially in the morning, but more or less stayed that way throughout the day. Once again, the traffic through our booth held up very well and we had very little of either our cheese or ice cream samples left at the end of the day.
 
Many good meetings were held during the day and we had a repeat visit from Mrs. Lee, the very enthusiastic customer who came by yesterday and called her store manager from our booth. Continued contact with Mrs. Lee and her preferred market are planned to continue in the future and a visit to her local store took place this afternoon. Many other ideas regarding a new market plan and other projects were discussed.
 
Once again our group split up in order to begin our various departures back to the US. Others of us, plus a former colleague, now with Lamb Weston, and her new manager, who are also here for the FHA show, came along with us for our tour to Lamb Weston.
 
Of all the reactions people have to seeing new things here in Asia, I think the best one is the reaction that people have when they see the panorama of the Port of Singapore from the Port’s viewing platform at the top of their Headquarters: container cranes as far as you can see, numerous ships of various types at anchor in the harbor, and the obvious level of frantic activity going on where ever one looks. In addition, because very few people are familiar with the work and activity that go on inside a large international seaport, the wonder in the eyes of first-time visitors when they are driven ‘inside the gate’ of the world’s second busiest container port is a great sight! Of the members of our small group of visitors to the Port of Singapore today, four of us were first-time visitors and the looks of wonder once again were visible on their faces. 
 
The Port visit marked the end of our Singapore trade mission trip. We all split up for dinner, some of us heading to the airport, others leaving early Saturday morning and during the day. It’s been a great trip, lots of activity and new colleagues met and the beginning of a new phase of our product development work here in SE Asia. We’re not quite there yet, but market entry is getting very close and I look forward to one day being able to announce the first shipments of cheese or ice cream to the area.

​Our next to last day at the Food & Hotel Asia (FHA) 2018 Trade Conference and Exhibition, was most extraordinary. Although it started out as just another day of exploration of the venue halls and short conversations with delegates across many different geographies, this changed rather completely early in the afternoon.
 
One of the first tasks of the day was to discuss our booth and our potential participation at the 2020 iteration of the FHA show (to be held in Singapore) with the management team at the US Dairy Export Council (USDEC). At this year’s FHA, we had a double booth, the result of a last minute cancelation by another producer company or organization. We were lucky to snag the extra space as we were joined this year by Tillamook Dairies, of Tillamook, Oregon as well as the return to FHA Singapore of Beehive Cheese from Utah. Thus we had one large commercial dairy and a smaller artisanal producer. In addition to Beehive’s sample cheeses, Tillamook brought both various different cheeses and eight varieties of ice cream.
 
At Trade Shows like FHA, it is impossible to predict attendance: how many visitors, either potential commercial buyers, or private citizens, will attend the exhibition and how many of those will come by your booth for a conversation or to try a sample of your product. Fortunately for us in 2018, attendance at the show has been quite strong and the number of people coming by our booth, both for conversation and sampling has been excellent. Both Beehive and Tillamook have had numerous conversations with potential buyers and many, many people have sampled both the various sample cheeses and the ice cream.
 
Thus it was not much of a surprise when a woman came by the booth on Thursday and asked me if I was working for Tillamook. I briefly explained my role and asked if she would like to speak to one of the Tillamook representatives at the booth. She asked if Tillamook was selling ice cream to a particular retail store company in Singapore and I referred her to one of the Tillamook team. It seems that Mrs. Lee (her real name) had been purchasing Tillamook ice cream at this store, but that the availability was inconsistent: sometimes they had it, sometimes not. When it was available, it always sold out quickly. She had tried other locations of the same store, with similar results. Mrs. Lee was very frustrated with this situation and she and her family really loved the ice cream, especially her son and his friends and the inconsistent availability was a big problem. She told that she had even spoken many times with the store manager, but without much success. She appealed to the Tillamook team to fix this appalling situation by making sure there was always enough of the ice cream available. We were all amazed by this totally random and impassioned testimonial about the quality and deliciousness of the product. To end the conversation, Mrs. Lee called the store and got the manager on the phone to advise that she was talking with the Tillamook people at the trade show and that they would be following up with the company – which they will certainly be doing!
 
My colleagues and I have been to many shows like the 2018 FHA, but none of us have ever before had a “Mrs. Lee moment”. It really made the day.
 
Once again tired and foot weary, we made our way back to the hotel to prepare for dinner and for our final day at FHA 2018 on Friday.