In March 2022, after a long period of virtual events due to the pandemic, Rosina Foods Products Inc., from Buffalo, New York, attended Food Export-Northeast’s first, post-pandemic in-person Focused Trade Mission to Panama. They met with many local buyers during pre-arranged one-one meetings, attended a retail tour, and presented their products at a tabletop showcase reception. As a result of their participation in this mission, Rosina made a sale of $50,000 and established 2 new agent relationships.

According to Pablo Cordova, Vice-President for International Sales and Marketing at Rosina Foods, “Food Export’s Mission was a great event! We met various retail and food service leads.  We were introduced to a major food service distributor during the mission, and they have since become a current client.”

Rosina is a family-owned business founded in 1963. They manufacture frozen specialty food products such as Italian entrées, filled pasta, and meatball products. Rosina is also an ingredient in many other food manufacturers’ products such as soup, pizza, lasagna, and more. Retail sales represent 60% of the business with Rosina products selling in 97 of the top 100 retail chains in the U.S. The other 40% of Rosina’s business is in food service selling to all top distributors and national accounts. Products are sold in U.S., Puerto Rico and Aruba, Barbados, Bermuda, Canada, Caymans, Colombia, Costa Rica, Curacao, Dominic Republic, El Salvador, Jamaica, Honduras, Guatemala, Guam, Nicaragua, Panama, Saint Croix, St. Marten, St. Tomas, Trinidad Tobago, US Virgin Islands.

Rosina has been participating in Food Export programs since 2014 taking part in the Branded Program, webinars, Buyers Missions, Market Builder for the Caribbean, Central and South America, Food Show PLUS!, the Online Product Catalog, and Focused Trade Missions.

Many of the buyer relationships this New York supplier has gained through participating in the Branded Program for eight years has helped to grow the Rosina brand and products internationally.

Food Export uses funding from the Market Access Program (MAP) to help America’s small businesses increase their exports of food and agricultural products. As these exports increase, these small businesses are creating jobs and improving the strength and stability of our agricultural economy. Food Export-Midwest and Food Export-Northeast are non-profit organizations that work in collaboration with their member state departments of agriculture and the USDA’s Foreign Agricultural Service. They offer a wide range of programs and services that help boost America’s agricultural exports.