SASKATOON – Bep Hamer and her preserves company entered the southeast Asian specialty food market by accident.
While in Vancouver in May, Hamer met a touring food and preserve manufacturer, Hestia Utomo, from Jakarta, Indonesia.
“We met for six hours and it has gone from there,” said Hamer, president of Grandma Bep’s Gourmet Foods of Swift Current, Sask.
Utomo was part of a food technology mission to Canada sponsored by the CanAsian Businesswomen’s Network. Utomo and four businesswomen from Vietnam, Indonesia, Thailand and Philippines came to learn more about food processing, packaging technology and to meet potential business contacts.
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The CanAsian Business-women’s Network was established a year ago to promote trade and investment between companies managed by women in the ASEAN region and Canada. The ASEAN economic region includes Singapore, Thailand, the Philippines, Malaysia, Indonesia and Brunei.
Currently, Canadian specialty foods shipments to the $13 billion ASEAN market is relatively small, said May Chow, international marketing officer with Agriculture Canada. The trade area has 340 million people and a growing middle-class sector the size of Canada’s population that can afford to buy imported specialty foods, said Chow.
In mid-October, Hamer traveled to southeast Asia on a trade mission.
Five Canadian women took part in the 10-day mission to Thailand, Philippines and Indonesia.
Doing business in Asia is different from doing business in North American, said Hamer.
“You just don’t sign on the dotted line.”
In Asia, people must establish a personal relationship before initiating business because Asian partners want to know if they can trust you, said Hamer.
Utomo and Hamer “hit it off” during their meeting in Canada. The two discussed joint venture possibilities, product development and sharing technological know-how to help Utomo’s new factory, scheduled to open next year, run more efficiently.
First-hand information can be used to decide if moving into Asia is right for the product and the company, she said.
“(Asian markets) can be very rewarding, if you go in there with your eyes open,” said Chow.
