Six U.S. companies from Maine, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, and Wisconsin traveled to Cologne, Germany for the International Sweets and Biscuits Fair (ISM) in February 2009. Food Export-Northeast sponsored Food Show PLUS™ tradeshow enhancement services funded through the Market Access Program to prepare U.S. companies for international tradeshows and maximize their experience. The services included an in-market briefing, local industry retail tours and pre-show product research regarding pricing, import regulation and competitor analysis. The companies made actual export sales at the show of $220,000. Three of these sales were companies’ first-time export sale to the market! In total, the companies made 84 contacts with new buyers and projected sales of over $1 million in the next two years. They also established 6 new distributorships.

Food Export-Midwest and Food Export-Northeast are private, non-profit associations of Midwestern and Northeastern state agricultural promotion agencies that use federal, state, and industry resources to promote the export of Midwestern and Northeastern food and agricultural products. Food Export-Midwest and Food Export-Northeast administer many services through Market Access Program (MAP) funding from the USDA, Foreign Agricultural Service.