Millions of dollars worth of trade were drummed up at the Saskatchewan Trade and Export Partnership’s trade conference, said STEP president Lionel LaBelle.
Seventy-five international buyers from 14 countries attended the conference in Saskatoon.
“I was in the China market 10 days ago, and we were presenting at a major pea conference in the Yantai province,” LaBelle said.
“We will do about 700,000 metric tonnes of yellow peas into that market this year. Seventeen of those companies followed us back to this conference. In that product alone, our Chinese customers suggest we will be over a million metric tons in the next 15 months. … Literally hundreds of millions of dollars traded hands today, simply because of our expertise and our quality products.”
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STEP organizes a conference every two years to educate Saskatchewan exporters about the global economy and introduce them to international opportunities for their products. However, this year’s international buyers component was new.
Melody Ector, vice-president of Diefenbaker Seed Processors in Elbow, Sask., said she believes the conference created significant business.
“STEP spent a lot of time bringing international buyers to us,” Ector said.
“They know the companies that belong to STEP, and they match up the buyers that we would be interested in.”
The conference included matchmaking sessions that resembled speed dating. STEP matched Saskatchewan businesses with international buyers for meetings that lasted 15 minutes each. There were more then 500 of these introductory meetings.
Mark Pickard, president of InfraReady Products, was at the conference looking to establish initial relationships with prospective buyers from Latin America, China and Spain.
“If you had to go and try to find these people individually, it would cost thousands and thousands of dollars,” Pickard said.
