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Agriculture and Food Exports - Home.
Export Readiness | Export Documentation | Export Training | Product Requirement Changes | Export Opportunities | Export Finance
Export Readiness
- Alberta Business Link - provides information and advice to companies from start-up to exporting. They also provide training to businesses on various topics including Beyond Borders USA, which includes a visit to the Coutts/Sweetgrass border crossing.
Verified August 2008
- Export Guides and Tools (Canada Business) - From developing an export plan to delivering your goods, you can find it here. Go to: Exporting and see the main headings:
- Getting Started - Export readiness, export plan, financing, guides and tools
- Market Research - Market reports, trade map, statistics, business opportunities
- Accessing your Market - Market entry strategies, marketing strategies, exporting a service, delivering goods
- Laws, Regulations, and Permits - Permits for regulated goods, business number, reporting exports, customs tariffs and HS codes
- Additional Sources of Information - Training programs, e-business, newsletters and magazinesFind export guides and tools for information during the various stages of exporting.
Verified August 2008
- Step-by-Step Guide to Exporting (Foreign Affairs and International Trade Canada) - This guide is a great tool for companies preparing to export. It covers the entire process of exporting, from the time a company starts thinking about exporting until the time it’s paid for delivery of goods or services. It’s available both online and in hard copy, and the first chapter will help SMEs understand how to lay the foundation of an export venture.
Verified August 2008
- Business Development Bank of Canada (BDC) - BDC is a financial institution wholly owned by the government of Canada. BDC plays a leadership role in delivering financial, investment and consulting services to Canadian small businesses. Visit the International Markets Section for articles on:
- Battling the invisible competitor
- Reducing risk in the global market
- Your export checklist
- Devising an export plan
- Entering a foreign market
- Export marketing: where to begin
- Options and credit practices in export financing
- Exporting under a fluctuating dollar
- Gearing up for international markets
- Doing business in emerging markets
- Practical, hands-on advice on exporting
- The power of alliances
Verified August 2008
- Responding to Unsolicited International Orders (Canada Business) - Although not targeted at food exporters, this article provides some useful tips to consider when responding to an inquiry. It details eight steps recommended to respond.
Step 1: Conduct Internal Research
Step 2: Conduct Market Research
Step 3: Calculate Costs
Step 4: Write a Quotation
Step 5: Determine Transaction Viability
Step 6: Begin Negotiations
Step 7: Create a Contract
Step 8: Fulfill the Order
If you are not interested in receiving inquiries from international buyers, be sure that your website is clear on the markets your company serves. It could save you some time.
Verified August 2008
- Transparency International - 2007 Corruption Index (under Reports) - Corrupt practices are more common in some countries than in others. Before doing business in a particular market, an exporting company should try to assess the level of corruption it’s likely to encounter. Transparency International (TI), the largest international NGO dedicated to monitoring and reporting on global corruption, can assist. Every year, TI publishes its Corruption Perceptions Index, which ranks the world’s countries according to the perceived level of their corruption in demanding bribes.
Verified August 2008
- Virtual Trade Commissioner - Free registration puts you in touch with the Canadian Trade Commissioner Service across Canada and around the world. Benefits include:
- Market and sector specific information
- Business leads and news
- On-line service delivery
- Information about your company available to Trade Commissioners abroad
Verified August 2008
- Understanding Incoterms - International Commerical Terms - (International Chamber of Commerce) - Incoterms are standard trade definitions most commonly used in international sales contracts. Devised and published by the International Chamber of Commerce, they are at the heart of world trade. Among the best known Incoterms are EXW (Ex works), FOB (Free on Board), and CIF (Cost, Insurance and Freight).
Verified August 2008
Export Documentation
- Exporting Goods from Canada (Canadian Border Services Association) - This site provides details on export reporting requirements and links to:
- Canadian Harmonized System (HS) Codes for Export Classification
- Export Documentation
- Publications and forms
- SME Enterprise Centre with information tailored to meet the border and trade information needs of small and medium-sized enterprises
- Requirements from other departments such as:
- D19-1-1 Food, Agricultural Commodities, Aquatic Commodities, and Agricultural Input
- D19-3-2 Exportation of Wheat and Barley Products
Verified August 2008
Export Training
- Forum for International Trade Training - FITT equips individuals and businesses with the practical skills they need to succeed in today´s competitive global marketplace. In Alberta, FITT is offered by: Academy of Learning (Edmonton), Mount Royal College (Calgary), Northern Alberta Institute of Technology (Edmonton), Academy of Learning (Edmonton), University of Calgary (Calgary), and University of Lethbridge (Lethbridge). See the website for details.
Verified August 2008
- Food Beverage Canada - FBC assists agri-food exporters by providing companies with opportunities to learn about markets through outgoing missions. Companies benefit through partial subsidization of travel costs and group rates. Programs usually include an opportunity for booth space, a tour of food retailers, and meetings or briefings.
Verified August 2008
Product Requirement Changes
- Export Alert ! (Standards Council of Canada) - Export Alert! Notification Service provides notice of pending changes to trade-related regulations, as well as the opportunity to comment on proposed measures. In addition to monitoring regulatory developments from a range of countries, beginning in 2007 Export Alert! allows subscribers to monitor regulatory changes under the World Trade Organization Agreement on Technical Barriers to Trade and the Agreement on the Application of Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures. Administrative features also allow users to track their requests, access full texts, and offers links to a number of related information resources.
Verified August 2008
Export Opportunities
- RFPSource - RFPSource is a secure electronic doorway to the global e-marketplace, which provides your organization with business opportunities and the tools needed to conduct business on the web. RFPSource matches companies and their products and services with thousands of opportunities posted daily by both domestic and foreign corporations and governments.
Export Finance
- Export Finance Guide (Export Development Canada)
Export Finance Guide is designed to help exporters understand and access export finance. Topics include: getting financing, pre-shipment and post-shipment export finance, types of financing, risk and insurance.
- Starting and Growing a Business: Financing - Alberta Agriculture and Food has developed a factsheet on financing tips and tools.
Insurance
- Export Development Canada - EDC provides accounts receivable insurance, investment protection and other trade finance solutions to Canadian companies and their customers abroad.
Lending
- Agriculture Financial Services - AFSC is a provincial crown corporation that offers:
Commercial Loan Program
Export Financing Loan Program
Beef Product and Market Development Loan Program
Bio-Industrial Loan Program
Capital Sourcing Program
Specific Loan Guarantee Program
- Business Development Bank of Canada (BDC) - is a financial institution wholly owned by the government of Canada. BDC plays a leadership role in delivering financial, investment and consulting services to Canadian small businesses.
Venture Capital
- AVAC Ltd. - AVAC is a not-for-profit company that invests in research initiatives and early stage commercial businesses that expand Alberta's value-added industry, with a particular focus on the agrivalue™, renewable resource, ICT, life sciences and other industrial technology sectors. They offer three investment programs.
Project Funding
- Agriculture and Food Council - The Council offers funding through the Advancing Canadian Agriculture and Agri-Food (ACAAF) program for projects aimed at finding innovative solutions to emerging challenges, advance research to capture market opportunities, and share information to advance the sector.
- Alberta Livestock Industry Development Fund - ALIDF is a multi-commodity livestock organization that funds research and development projects. This multi-commodity livestock organization funds projects that effect: environmental sustainability; food safety and quality assurance; animal welfare; value-added development; and education and communication (of the preceding four areas). ALIDF is a founding member of the Agriculture Funding Consortium, which is comprised of 15 organizations . Funding applications can be made to any of the consortium member organizations - because a one-window application form is used, applicants only need to submit once. Applications are shared among members of the consortium so that they can see which applications fit with their fund's strategic goals and mandate.
- Food Beverage Canada - administers the Alberta Technology Innovation Program (ATIP) which provides financial support for Alberta companies to attend approved National and International technology-related trade shows, conferences, seminars and other industry events to foster support for both company and industry innovation and growth.
- Industrial Research Assistance Program - National Research Council's (NRC-IRAP) offers two kinds of financial assistance
- Research and Technology Development Activities - provides non-repayable contributions to Canadian SMEs interested in growing by using technology to commercialize services, products and processes in Canadian and international markets.
- Youth Employment Strategy Programs - provides innovative small and medium-sized enterprises with support to hire post-secondary graduates.
Export Shipping
- Freightquote - Freightquote.com uses state-of-the-art technology to offer a centralized directory where business-to-business customers can view the offerings of multiple carriers. The site eliminates the delays and the haggling of the auction process by offering real-time instant rating with aggregated pricing for Less-than-truckload, Truckload, Expedited, Local Cartage and Intermodal freight.
Please let me know if you have used Freightquote and found it useful - Marcia O'Connor, Trade Development Officer |
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