St. Louis, Missouri-based RIBUS, Inc. has participated in Food Export-Midwest’s Branded Program for 24 consecutive years. Continuing to find export growth with the Branded Program, the Missouri supplier uses the program to gain brand awareness in existing export markets, while also gaining new foreign buyer contacts worldwide.
In 2021 RIBUS participated in the program to expand exports of their food ingredient and supplement products to Switzerland and Germany. They used their allocated funds to exhibit at foreign trade shows, ship product samples to potential buyers, make label/package modifications, and create international websites. These efforts helped the company earn over $558,000 in sales to Switzerland and over $179,000 in sales to Germany. They also gained 55 new foreign buyer contacts in these markets and project to complete another $300,000 in sales to the markets over the next twelve months. Sales would typically exceed $1M in Europe as a whole, but unfortunately the Missouri supplier was navigating regulatory changes and new requirements from EFSA, which has put much of Europe’s sales on hold.
The next year Ribus was able to see growth for the exports to Europe. They used funding from the Branded Program to regain their market share by attending foreign, ingredient-based trade shows. These efforts helped the company gain over $1.1M to France, Switzerland, and Germany. They also gained 195 new foreign buyer contacts and establish 2 new agent relationships.
Founded in 1992 as a functional ingredient manufacturing company, RIBUS supplies natural and organic rice ingredients to food, beverage, dietary supplement, and pet companies around the world. The foundation of their business is to provide clean label alternatives that can help solve production issues and bring innovation to client’s products. By utilizing the “by-products” from rice manufacturing, RIBUS, through patented processes, is able to create natural or certified organic, gluten-free, hypo-allergenic ingredients that give producers the necessary functionality similar to mono- and diglycerides, silicon dioxide, magnesium stearate, and other synthetic ingredients.
The Missouri supplier has participated in the Market Access Program funded Branded Program since 1998 and participates in Food Export webinars, Market Builder services, and the Online Product Catalog.
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.
