Agri-Food Trade Service

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This Web site was created 15 years ago as a source of market information and export support activities for Canadian companies. As the web evolves and our interaction with clients intensifies we've decided to take a more active approach in keeping you informed with what we've published recently and to give a sneak peak at what you can look forward to in the coming months in the hopes of giving you a reason to come back and get more involved with our projects.

Trade Commissioners – A key resource for accessing international markets

June 30, 2010

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As we've mentioned before in previous blogs, the presence of Trade Commissioners in numerous markets worldwide serves as a key resource and competitive advantage for Canadian exporters looking to enter into international markets. As our most geographically close and, by far, largest export destination for Canadian agri-food products, the United States (U.S.) remains an important market for our industry. With an approximate 75% of Canadians living within 100 miles of the U.S. border and many of Canada's largest cities positioned nearby, it is no surprise that the U.S. is a main trading partner. Our Trade Commissioners in the U.S. can provide a vital function in aiding Canadian companies in reaching this market and providing a more seamless export process.

At the busy Consulate General of Canada in Buffalo, New York, we now have a new Trade Commissioner. Following the retirement of Trade Commissioner Marcia Grove, Mary Mokka has filled this position at the Consulate, which is a part of the Canadian Trade Commissioner Service that boasts 900 Trade Commissioners and more than 150 embassies and consulates worldwide.

Mary possesses years of professional trade experience, previously being in the role of coordinator for the New Exporters to Border States Program and has worked with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in the past. In her function of Trade Commissioner, she'll be providing assistance to Canadian suppliers, aiding them in navigating through the Food and Drug Administrations' export regulations and process. Trade Commissioners also offer a range of other export-related services to Canadian companies, from freight forwarding, marketing, and labelling, to finding food brokers, buyers, and distributors.

The markets that Trade Commissioners serve close to the Canadian border may not always be the largest markets in the U.S., but they are a key entry point for trade across the border. While serving a relatively small market size of approximately 15 million covering Upstate New York, Western Pennsylvania, and West Virginia, the Consulate in Buffalo is actually the second largest Canadian Consulate in the U.S. In 2009, the states of New York, Pennsylvania and West Virginia imported a considerable $2.5 billion in Canadian agri-food products. This represented 14% of Canada's total agri-food exports to the U.S., while the combined population of the three states represents 11% of the country's population. New York was also Canada's third largest export state for agri-food products in 2009.

Trade Commissioners in the U.S. also provide the ATS with a variety of region-specific profiles and reports, which we post on the web site and can be found under our United States Market Information Section. Please take advantage of this valuable resource available to Canadians and the many ways in which their expertise can benefit your company. As always, if you have any questions regarding our Trade Commissioners, this blog post, or general inquiries for the ATS team, please don't hesitate to get in touch.

Until next time...

Robin Wint,
Market Analyst
Agri-Food Trade Service
robin.wint@agr.gc.ca

Note: The Ontario Agri-Food Exporter Spring 2010 edition, by Ontario Food Exports (OFEX) of the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs, was used as a key source of information for this blog.

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