South East Asian producers getting ready for BioTrade exports

2019-02-07T14:16:57+00:00December 21st, 2018|Tags: , , , , , , , |

ProFound experts Robbie Hogervorst and Aafke van Sprundel conducted a series of market entry strategy trainings in Kuala Lumpur, Yangon and Mandalay for the Helvetas Regional BioTrade Project South East Asia. More than 20 Vietnamese, Lao and Myanmar companies were trained and supported to develop their first market entry strategy. A second objective was to build capacities of business associations to start developing market entry services to their members.    During the workshop, the participants were guided to define how they wanted to position themselves on the market. Do they want to be a high end, a sustainable, ethical, unique [Read more]

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Trading prospects for Biotrade suppliers after match-making with international buyers

2019-04-16T10:48:42+00:00December 20th, 2017|Tags: , , , , , |

Susan Curtis was one of three buyers on the buyer’s mission for the SECO-funded Regional BioTrade Project Southeast Asia with Helvetas Swiss Intercooperation facilitated by ProFound. As Director of Natural Health at Neal’s Yard Remedies, Susan visited Myanmar and Vietnam and explored the possibilities to cooperate with suppliers of BioTrade ingredients. The mission inspired her to consider some of these ingredients for the products of Neal’s Yard Remedies, including both high quality spice essential oils and a cosmetic ingredient that would be new to Europe and has the potential to lead to some exciting and innovative new product development. “I was [Read more]

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The business case for BioTrade markets

2018-06-26T12:34:59+00:00October 31st, 2017|Tags: , , , , , |

ProFound’s consultants  Bert-Jan Ottens and Sacha Handgraaf supported a Helvetas training on sustainable certification schemes in the context of the Regional BioTrade Project Southeast Asia with Helvetas Swiss Intercooperation. The Helvetas country teams came together in Bangkok to discuss certification trajectories for the tea, spices and thanaka value chains. This will help the teams to design strong business cases for BioTrade with business support and private sector actors in Laos, Vietnam and Myanmar. During the two day-training the teams learned more about: Food safety and sustainability certifications relevant for the international market How to make the link between the BioTrade principles [Read more]

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Market Orientation @Vitafoods Asia in Singapore on BioTrade marketing

2017-09-21T08:00:18+00:00September 21st, 2017|Tags: , , , , , |

Within the scope of our work on the Regional BioTrade Project Southeast Asia with Helvetas, our senior consultant Robbie Hogervorst supported a Helvetas training mission in Singapore. During the training, selected companies gained insight into their potential to export BioTrade products; learning about buyer and market requirements, BioTrade market trends, and possible trade channels. The companies also learned how to translate their new insights into their marketing plan: How to develop a suitable product, how to promote it, how to price it? This is part of our activities in Business Planning (see our solutions page for more information). During the [Read more]

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Finalising the inception phase of the Regional BioTrade Project

2017-08-16T10:31:31+00:00May 3rd, 2017|Tags: , , , , |

Helvetas Swiss Intercooperation and ProFound collaborated closely on an Export Potential Assessment (EPA) in the Regional BioTrade project in Southeast Asia (Vietnam, Laos and Myanmar). Since September 2016, ProFound consultants and Helvetas national teams have identified bottlenecks and possible interventions through desk research, fieldwork and verification missions. ProFound worked together with the Helvetas teams in researching the possibilities for BioTrade. Their help with the desk research, field work and reporting has been very useful in the completion of the inception phase of the project. - Tuan, Le Anh, Deputy Project Manager, Regional BioTrade Project Southeast Asia, Helvetas Vietnam The combination [Read more]

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ProFound´s first verification mission to Vietnam for BioTrade project

2017-08-16T10:31:50+00:00January 23rd, 2017|Tags: , , , , |

ProFound consultant Robbie Hogervorst visited Vietnam as part of the Export Potential Assessment for the Regional BioTrade project in Southeast Asia with Helvetas Swiss Intercooperation. At the end of last year, we identified promising BioTrade products from Vietnam, Lao PDR and Myanmar, by assessing their export potential. BioTrade is defined as the trade of products that are native to a country and maintain or enrich its biodiversity. In Vietnam, Robbie and the local Helvetas team verified the outcomes of this research. The team talked to companies and other stakeholders, such as government institutions, through individual interviews and a roundtable. "During [Read more]

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Promising Natural Ingredients in Regional BioTrade Programme Southeast Asia

2019-04-12T14:51:05+00:00December 6th, 2016|Tags: , , , , |

ProFound and longstanding partner Klaus Dürbeck Consulting have joined forces with Helvetas Swiss Intercooperation in a SECO-funded Regional BioTrade Programme in Southeast Asia, which started in September 2016. In the first stage of this Programme, we are identifying promising natural ingredients from Vietnam, Lao PDR and Myanmar, by assessing their export potential. Teams in the respective countries are interviewing local companies and stakeholders to provide input from the field. In October 2016, ProFound’s BioTrade expert Bert-Jan Ottens and associate consultant Nuning Barwa travelled to Hanoi to train and prepare these local teams for their fieldwork.   ProFound calculated the Export Potential Index of BioTrade products [Read more]

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ProFound joins Helvetas in regional BioTrade in Southeast Asia

2017-02-08T16:18:50+00:00August 19th, 2016|Tags: , , , , , , |

ProFound has joined forces with Helvetas Swiss Intercooperation and our partner Klaus Dürbeck Consulting for a Regional Biotrade Programme in Southeast Asia, specifically in Vietnam, Lao PDR and Myanmar. This four-year programme is funded by SECO, the Swiss State Secretariat for Economic Affairs. The programme aims to create biodiversity-related economic opportunities in Vietnam, Lao PDR and Myanmar, by creating business models for sustainably sourced, traceable and value-added natural ingredients. Such ethical Biotrade business models will aim to create functional economic relations between local communities, processing & exporting SMEs, and international buyers. The Biotrade business models will comply with national and international [Read more]

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