Building capacities of business support organisations in Southeast Asia

2020-01-17T12:58:50+00:00January 16th, 2020|Tags: , , , , , , |

Last year, in our work for the Regional BioTrade programme from Helvetas Swiss Intercooperation we focused on building capacities of business support organisations in Southeast Asia. Our consultant Jolanda van Hal travelled to Laos, Myanmar and Vietnam in October and December last year. She worked with these business support organisations to develop their market access service portfolio. They have strong ambitions and ProFound is helping them to reach those. Myanmar Tea Association's ambitions: Take the example of the buisness support organisation such as the Myanmar Tea Association. Their aim is to put Myanmar on the map as a quality [Read more]

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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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2 ethical organic buyers, 8 suppliers, 3 countries: Buyer mission shows Biotrade potential in South East Asia

2019-04-12T12:59:42+00:00October 23rd, 2018|Tags: , , , , , |

ProFound senior consultant Robbie Hogervorst joined the Helvetas buyer mission to South East Asia to identify business opportunities for Biotrade products and actions needed to make business happen. Organic buyers Traditional Medicinals (USA) and Organic Herb Trading Company (UK) met with companies from Vietnam and Laos. Organic Herb Trading company also visited suppliers in Myanmar. BioTrade products in Southeast Asia  The main focus of the mission was on suppliers producing indigenous spices and organically produced local varieties of commodity spices, such as turmeric and ginger. The buyers also explored options for medicinal and aromatic plants and local herbal medicine traditions. In general, there [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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