News Archives - Page 17 of 20

ProFound supports Ethiopian pulse producers at Anuga
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ProFound supports Ethiopian pulse producers at Anuga

Aafke van Sprundel2016-11-01T16:28:08+00:00October 27th, 2015|Tags: Anuga, Ethiopia, pulses, SNV|

The ANUGA trade fair in Cologne, Germany provided an excellent opportunity for 3 Ethiopian farmer unions to meet with European companies. Previously, they only supplied products to the Ethiopian Commodity Exchange or Ethiopian companies. At ANUGA, they learned that European buyers are more demanding and require them to develop their business. ProFound and its partners SNV and Target are supporting the farmer unions with the necessary market knowledge, business planning and matchmaking. The study tour was part of the Cooperatives for Change (C4C) programme in Ethiopia. This programme aims to strengthen cooperatives and particularly the marketing of the farm products. [Read more]

Promoting trade in sustainable flowers from Colombia
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Promoting trade in sustainable flowers from Colombia

Aafke van Sprundel2019-04-16T14:52:44+00:00August 5th, 2015|Tags: Colombia, Flowers, Proverde, Solidaridad|

Colombia, the world’s second largest flower exporter, is very progressive regarding the production of sustainable flowers. Colombia is already the leading supplier to the USA, but still has a lot of market to gain in Europe. Many of the exporting companies are certified Florverde, a certification scheme for social and environmental management. The Sustainable Trade Platform in Colombia, an initiative of Solidaridad, has requested Proverde and ProFound to research the European market for sustainable flowers. This research will identify market opportunities for Colombian suppliers of sustainable flowers and support the expansion of Colombia’s sustainable flowers in the European market.

Championing Vietnamese tea and honey
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Championing Vietnamese tea and honey

Aafke van Sprundel2016-11-01T16:28:08+00:00June 2nd, 2015|Tags: CBI, Honey, tea, Vietnam|

Thinking of Vietnam, most people picture beautiful country sides, rice fields, mountains and cities like Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City. Tea and honey hardly come to mind. ProFound is taking up the challenge to find the opportunities for these lesser known Vietnamese products on the European market. Vietnam produces high quality tea, but the country’s reputation has not yet spread to Europe. The case is different for Vietnamese honey. In 2007, Vietnamese honey was banned from the European market. Since the ban lifted in 2013, Vietnam has been working to re-establish its key position in the global honey trade. To [Read more]

Non-Wood Forest Products in Kosovo

Aafke van Sprundel2016-10-11T12:38:31+00:00May 13th, 2015|Tags: Kosovo, Non-Wood Forest Products, Promoting Private Sector Employment, Riinvest Institute, Swiss Development Cooperation|

ProFound has just concluded the first phase of the Market Assessment for the Non-Wood Forest Product (NWFP) sub-sector in Kosovo, consisting mainly of medicinal and aromatic plants (MAPs), berries and mushrooms. This assessment has been commissioned by the Promoting Private Sector Employment (PPSE) programme, financed by the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC). In the course of two weeks, Gustavo Ferro cooperated closely with the PPSE team and Riinvest Institute in gathering primary data from processors of NWFPs, collection centres, collectors, international organisations and service providers in all corners of Kosovo. The market assessment team was also accompanied by gender analysts [Read more]

Market orientation: EU health ingredients

Aafke van Sprundel2016-10-11T13:27:03+00:00May 12th, 2015|Tags: Health, market orientation, Natural Ingredients, South Africa|

Robbie Hogervorst and CBI health ingredient expert Klaus Dürbeck travelled to Vitafoods in the beginning of May for a Market Orientation mission with South African producers of natural ingredients. During this mission, companies verified their market entry strategy with classroom trainings. They met with potential buyers and came to a better understanding what they need to enter the EU market. Not only did the trade fair show them potential customers, but also their competitors. Key in this work was to acquaint the companies with documentation: using company contact forms for effective decision making and follow up. Visiting retail outlets showed [Read more]

Market Orientation at In-Cosmetics

Aafke van Sprundel2016-11-01T16:28:08+00:00April 28th, 2015|Tags: CBI, Cosmetics, Latin America, South Africa|

At the In-Cosmetics trade fair in Barcelona, Robbie Hogervorst and CBI cosmetic ingredient export Andrew Jones organised a market orientation mission, to help SME exporters of natural ingredients get ready to export to Europe. Over 30 companies and business support organisations from South Africa and Latin America took part in this mission. The mission in Barcelona helped companies verify their market entry strategy. The companies met with potential buyers and came to a better understanding of what they need to enter the European market. What’s more, the trade fair introduced them to their competitors from Europe, as well as from [Read more]

Facilitating the South African natural ingredients sector

Aafke van Sprundel2016-10-11T12:40:23+00:00April 2nd, 2015|Tags: CBI, Cosmetics, food, Health, South Africa|

South Africa has a great potential to become a leader in Natural Ingredients. Unfortunately, the business environment is not enabling the sector to take full advantage of the country´s position. For that reason, Robbie Hogervorst went to South Africa, together with CBI´s institutional expert Jim Tersteeg to visit stakeholders that could play a key role in improving a business enabling environment. During this mission, forward actions were discussed. South Africa has a sound foundation to develop and market high quality and innovative ingredients for the health, cosmetics and food sectors. This foundation is built on the country’s biodiversity, diversity in [Read more]

Strategic Conferences in South Africa: Natural Ingredients

Aafke van Sprundel2016-10-11T12:41:02+00:00March 23rd, 2015|Tags: CBI, South Africa|

ProFound conducted a series of regional conferences for CBI’s natural ingredients project to follow-up on earlier strategic conferences held in December 2014. The first conferences focused on export development; the second series of conferences took one step further by looking at export promotion, e.g. developing the right product for the right market, supported by the right promotion and marketing mix. Of course, research is vital to such efforts. As such, the conferences not only brought together companies and public sector officials from key departments at local and national level, but also brought in researchers from universities and research institutes with research programmes [Read more]

Ethiopian honey processors prepare orders

Aafke van Sprundel2016-10-11T12:42:29+00:00March 23rd, 2015|Tags: ASPIRE, beekeeping sector, Ethiopia, Honey|

Following their successful participation in BioFach and Gulfood with support from ProFound, Ethiopian honey processors are preparing orders from their buyers. During a visit to Ethiopia in March, ProFound gave advice to these processors on their action plans. While sourcing of honey during the next harvest season in May is already on their radar, processors still need to secure steel drums for the export of this honey. In cooperation with several processors and the Ethiopian Apiculture Board, ProFound is consolidating orders for cost-efficient import of steel drums to address this potential bottleneck. With many new inexperienced exporters entering the sector, [Read more]

Bringing Ethiopian honey and beeswax to Biofach

Aafke van Sprundel2016-11-01T16:28:08+00:00February 23rd, 2015|Tags: ASPIRE, Biofach, Ethiopia, Honey|

Biofach, the world’s largest trade fair for organic food, set the stage for the first trade fair participation of five Ethiopian honey processors, supported by ProFound. These companies are ready to start exporting honey to Europe: the trade fair in Nürnberg was the first, very successful, step to find buyers for their honey. We found an overwhelming interest in honey and beeswax from Ethiopia. On average, the exhibitors collected 25-30 business leads per company. We also brought four additional honey processors to the trade fair in Nürnberg for a study tour. Though not yet ready for exports, these companies are [Read more]