Since 2002, Missouri Northern Pecan Growers has participated in Food Export-Midwest’s Branded Program to gain brand awareness for their certified organic native pecans, pecan oil, and pecan meal flour in international markets. The supplier’s Certified Organic pecans are sold in health food stores, specialty grocery stores, and mom n’ pop shops throughout the US. Missouri Northern Pecan Growers pecans are offered by numerous food distributors across Canada, the EU, and Asia and are used as an ingredient in breakfast cereals, trail mixes, granola, baked goods, and vegan, plant-based foods by food manufacturers.
Over the past ten years, the supplier has used the program to defer the costs associated with making product label modifications, creating and distributing promotional items, producing and distributing promotional literature, and shipping samples to prospective clients.
Last year, Missouri Northern Pecan Growers participated in the Market Access Program funded Branded Program to gain brand awareness in Canada and the Netherlands. In Canada, the supplier focused on making their products more accessible to Canadian consumers by modifying their products and promotional materials to French. For promotions in the Netherlands, the Missouri company used its allocated funding to ship product samples and to make label modifications to its products to comply with country regulations. These Branded Program promotions helped the Missouri-based supplier gain $28,775 in sales to Canada and $31,175 in sales to the Netherlands. They also project to complete over $66,000 in sales over the next twelve months to these two markets. Their promotions also helped them gain 68 new foreign buyer contacts and establish 2 new distributorships. Ben Bennett, General Manager for Missouri Northern Pecan Growers, shared, “The services provided by the Food Export- Midwest are pertinent to our company’s export success. These programs allow small agricultural businesses such as ours to attend trade shows, meet new international buyers, re-affirm existing relationships with international distributors, and promote U.S.-grown products in ways that otherwise wouldn’t be possible. The Food Export staff is knowledgeable, courteous in answering questions, and always eager to share new opportunities.”
Family and farmer-owned Missouri Northern Pecan Growers has been in business since 2000. The Nevada, Missouri supplier has participated in Food Export programs for the past thirteen years, including the Branded Program, the Food Export Helpline, and the Online Product Catalog. They have also attended Buyers Missions and Focused Trade Missions.
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.
