The project develops the capabilities of companies in the food and travel industry to conduct export operations in the German market.
Internationale Grüne Woche and the German market
Germany is Finland’s most important trading partner. It is quite near and relatively similar to Finland as an operating environment, which makes it a good target county for a company commencing its export operations. Held in Berlin in January each year, the world’s largest food fair, Berlin International Green Week (in German: Internationale Grüne Woche Berlin), is a good channel for promoting a company, making contacts with German operators in the field, and carrying out test marketing and product testing.
The fair has around 400,000 visitors over the ten days of the fair, tens of thousands of whom are buyers and other professionals in the food and other related sectors. In January 2019, Green Week has Finland as the principal partner for the fair, which lends special attention to Finland and Finnish companies.
Main actions
Activation will take place by arranging workshops under the themes with the following themes: export and sales competence, commercialisation, marketing communications and directing of one’s own network and operating within networks. Additionally, at least one group of companies will be assembled that will prepare for, and participate in, the Internationale Grüne Woche (IGW2019) fair held in January 2019 in Berlin.
The actions aim to activate companies to pay attention to and develop the internationalisation capabilities of their business operations.
An electronic publication will be produced on the preparations made for the fair, the exhibitor experiences gained and the network cooperation, which will be published as part of the closing workshop for the project in September 2019.
Content of workshops autumn 2018 – spring 2019:
- The German market and internationalisation – Internationale Grüne Woche Berlin 2019 (August 2018)
- Rules and regulations on international markets – an overview of export contracts, licences and certificates, customs and taxation practices and package labelling in the EU’s internal market and countries outside the EU (October 2018)
- Customer-driven product development – packaging that attracts the target group (December 2018)
- Marketing communications aimed at the target group and brand building (February 2019)
- What is my international network and how do I benefit from it? The significance of multicultural customer relationships and partnerships in Germany in particular (April 2019)
- Participator experiences and results as an exhibitor at an international fair – IGW2019. Project closing workshop (September 2019)
Duration
The project will be executed between 1 June 2018 and 30 September 2019.
Implementation and cooperation
The project will be implemented by JAMK University of Applied Sciences.
The activation project will engage in cooperation with project operators from MTK Keski-Suomi, ProAgria and the Pirkanmaa and Häme IGW2019 company groups.
Financing
The project will be financed from the Agricultural Fund for Rural Development by the Central Finland Centre for Economic Development, Transport and the Environment.
