In November of 2020, Food Export-Northeast held a Virtual Trade Mission to the Middle East for U.S. suppliers. ODR Foods Corporation was one of the participating companies who took part in the virtual event hoping to gain new foreign buyer contacts. While they already had some established contacts in the market, during this event they made some new connections, increased their brand’s awareness, and secured product sales.

For ODR Foods Corporation, a healthy and innovative product trading company from Lancaster, New York, this Virtual Trade Mission to Middle East was not the first mission with Food Export. Company’s Chief Customer Officer, Shehzad Raza traveled to Dubai in 2019 for Food Export’s Focused Trade Mission to Dubai. But this 2020 event was the first-time the New York Supplier participated in a Food Export Virtual Trade Mission.

This is what Shehzad had to say after the event, “I really liked working with the team. Everyone was so helpful and assisted with making things happen. We are very hopeful to grow our business.”

ODR Foods Corporation met with 9 buyers in total from United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia and established 2 new distributorships. The company currently projects to complete $150,000 in sales from this event and signed up for Food Export’s Focused Trade Mission to Middle East scheduled for December of 2021.

ODR Foods Corporation is committed to deliver healthy, delicious, and innovative products. Their product line includes breakfast cereals, cakes and desserts, soups and seasonings, among other products in their portfolio.

Food Export Focused Trade Missions are a premiere activity successfully organized by Food Export for many years. It allows U.S. food companies to travel and experience local markets and its landscape as well as meet potential in-market buyers at one-on-one meetings. Since traveling became almost impossible in March of 2020, Food Export successfully shifted to Virtual Trade Missions which, with the help of technology, allows one-on-one meetings with potential buyers from different markets to be conducted virtually. In 2020 Food Export completed 6 Virtual Trade Missions that received positive feedback both from suppliers and buyers. This year [2021] Food Export has 11 Virtual Trade Missions planned.

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.