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Export.ar provides argentine businesses with assistance in their endeavours to trade their products and to access international markets. In an exclusive interview with Argentina.ar, Executive Director Marcelo Elizondo ellaborated on the foundation’s goals
The aid supplied by this foundation is boosted by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Foreign Trade and Cult´s initiatives through the 120 Embassies and Consulates of several Argentine delegations around the world.
Export.ar Foundation is a public agency working in collaboration with both the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the private sector. According to Marcelo Elizondo, its task lies in "fostering the access of our diferentiated products, that is those bringing greater added value, to the major worldwide markets. More specifically, those products which may place Argentina in a competitive position by promoting talent, creativity and command of the manufacturing and marketing process".
Our methodology consists in "rendering our service to exporters, mainly by assisting them the complex challenge of seeking access to business opportunities abroad. We basically provide relevant information that enables them to detect those opportunities, since every international market is different and, as such, features its own requirements and peculiarities". In addition, the foundation provides "technical assistance to cooperate with the companies in adjusting their manufacturing processes, as a prior stage to opening up to worldwide markets".
Finally, one further service we render, and perhaps the most conspicuous, is "Marketing promotion: by this I mean encouraging them to participate in world trade exhibitions and fairs, so that they may fit into foreign countries’ market chains and eventually reach potential customers and partners in different markets". To date, these promotional programs comprise some 5000 argentine companies working in collaboration with Export.ar.
Foodstuff account for 55% of Argentine exports and that is why the foundation takes part in the leading worldwide trade exhibitions in the field, from the coming Barcelona’s International Foodstuff and Beverage Exhibition to the SIAL, the top elaborate foodstuff exhibition.
Elizondo goes on to remark that "at the New York Fancy Food, Argentina will be attending with an atractive and very conspicuous booth, where not only each of Argentina´s major foodstuff manufacturer will be present with their representatives but also with the exhibition of samples of their products for quality verifications. Furthermore, tasting and cocktails have been arranged for exhibition of the products to be traded, as a strategy to bolster the marketing of sense-perceived products".
In addition to foodstuff products, there are other fields Export.ar is working on in terms of trade shows. CEBIT in Hannover, Germany, for instance, is an "annual trade show exhibiting technologies included in goods and services that our foundation attends in conjunction with software-related service companies". Another outstanding international event is Frankfut’s Automechanika, "the most important worldwide in the automobile field, one in which Argentina has achieved remarkable relevance: the country is expected to export an unprecedented 300.000 cars. Also, over 2.5 billion dollars are exported in car parts for assembly operations abroad, particularly in Mexico and Brazil". The schedule for planned endeavours to be undertaken in 2008 can already be consulted at http://www.tradenateargentina.gov.ar/.
During 2007, SME’s exports climbed to over 6 billion dollars. Elizondo explains that, for the companies in this category, exports "account for significant business volumes" and adds that "their strategy is not developed on the basis of a scale economy, the volume or the price, but rather, on innovation, diferentiated products, quality and added value".
