Within the “Afer-Biofach Debate 2019 – How to change export strategies based on the new market information”, event organized on March 5, 2019 by USH Pro Business in partnership with Inter-Bio Association, Bio Danubius cluster, Bio Concept Prahova Valley , BioNEst and ACEX, the companies present, representing the field of organic farming, organic honey producers, organic food, organic seed oils, organic cereals, organic fertilizers and phytosanitary products were extremely interested in the disseminated information and were willing to hear about the impressions following the participation in the fair Biofach Nuremberg 2019. At the event, there were also present representatives of the Research Institute for Agricultural Economics and Rural Development Bucharest and teachers of Spiru Haret University.
The main conclusions drawn from the participation of the companies in Biofach fair 2019, were that the Romanian involvement on thematic areas of clusters, has increased the interest of consumers and importers. This thing was also due to the fact that the companies presented themselves as associative entities such as cooperatives, clusters or export consortia.
There was an increased demand for new products, both in terms of ways of packaging and alsoon new product itself. These elements have led to many contacts and offer companies the belief that by participating in future editions they will be able to obtain export orders.
It was also highlighted that the export of organic products means gaining the trust of partners in terms of the quality of products that will be sold in developed markets where there is high demand. However, gaining this trust requires time and patience and marketing budgets.
Other topics of interest discussed with the participants were: the advantages of promoting companies under the collective cluster brand; supporting and guiding the green sector towards innovation; aspects of internationalization of companies by participating in future international events and access to financing programs.
Last but not least, one of the topics of interest was related to the existing options for exporting organic products to the UK & Ireland market. Based on the fact that the British market represents 3% of the global market for organic products, being the 7th largest organic market in the world, the possible distribution channels for this market were discussed as well.
“Since most of the export companies present do not have enough resources to enter the market individually, the solutions we discussed refers to creating collective promotions through clusters and associations that allow us, on one hand, to reduce costs and on the other hand, to have a high visibility of a collective image ”said Costin Lianu, President of Inter-Bio, General Manager of USH Pro Business.