Agri-Food Trade Service

ATS Content Manager's Blog

September 16, 2009

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Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada's involvement with the Government of Canada's Trade Commissioner Service has evolved recently. While internally we continue to figure out what that "evolution" means for us from an internal service perspective (more content direct from our offices abroad perhaps), we already know what it will mean for Canadian companies. Simply more knowledgable and invested representation in key markets across the glode.

The Trade Commissioner Service itself is undergoing a bit of a renaissance in the way it delivers its services to Canadians. Despite a modernization of sorts (On line tools: videos, RSS feeds and other fora in Social Networking) the basic elements of the service remain unchanged.

• Preparing Canadian companies for international markets
• Assessing a company's market potential
• Finding qualified contacts
• Resolving problems

In a recent video series highlighting key elements of the Trade Commissioners' services, companies in Canada's growing gaming industry detailed some of the universal benefits of the Trade Commissioners (TC).

"...I think having a TC lends small companies like myself some legitimacy…by having the TC it gives you that sense that the government has vetted you and that you're a sane person with a real product. And that you're actually worth talking to. It's trying to get time with these bigger companies that can help you in terms of growing your product, your audience in our case, that's huge. And we could be spending hours and hours and we don't have the ability to fly to Finland and spend days and days trying to meet with these people. So it's really important to have some people on the ground that really know those countries and are able to guide you through them."

San Francisco, April 5th, 2009
Duration: 2:26 minutes

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Making contacts and meeting some of the key industry people in a target market was a notable benefit of working with the Trade Commissioner Service who is very capable of doing that in market leg work that can be a real challenge for a company new to market.

"Some of the big (companies) I really wanted to meet with, we actually found the Trade Commission Service actually brought them to us. They were able to arrange meetings that we couldn't get on our own basically…it just would have taken a long time to try to get the right meeting with the right person. But the TC did it for us you know in a matter of a week. (The target contact) actually made the comment that… we would have been somebody they would typically have overlooked. The value really is saving me time, money and effort… We find… it's great when we're dealing with international partners that you don't have to sell Canada first, they actually have an understanding, Canada has great companies, great reputation for delivering product. That's what the TC's are around for, consulates in different cities will help you meet businesses in those cities when you're doing specific geographic targeting. And they're there to serve. They really are there to help and it's something that you shouldn't be ignoring regardless of the size of the company there, whether you're a start up or a company that's been around for 20 years."

San Francisco, April 5th, 2009
Duration: 1:54 minutes

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The message is clear, Canada's Trade Commissioners are worth a call, and with more Agricultural represetatives abroad, that is truer than ever.

Get in touch
Until next month.

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