June's international activity update

New listings

• FFB Germany has enabled Farne Salmon to get their new product developments (NPDs) listed in upmarket Karstadt stores along with their standard products.
• Farne Salmon will also be stocked in Rewe, Germany’s biggest supermarket chain. Rewe will stock Farne’s standard range in their “on-top stores” with NPDs coming in at Christmas.
• FFB Germany assisted Dormen Food’s finest quality nuts to secure listings in three more five star hotels.
• FFB Belgium has secured a listing for seafood company Isle of Shuna’s mussels in Delhaize stores across the country. See Mussels to Brussels!
• Quorn is now being sold in Co-op stores and other independent supermarkets across Denmark.
• FFB Italy has been asked to source British food and drink products for the Queen’s Birthday Party, to be held in at the Ambassador’s residence in Rome on 14 June, with more than 1,000 dignitaries from government, industry and the press invited. Products including McVities Digestives, Carr’s Water Biscuits and Kettle Chips’ crisps have been sourced, as well as items from Walker’s, Duchy Original and Pinney’s. The HGCA will also be promoted at the event.
• FFB Portugal reported that it had assisted Gourmet’s Choice in forging a relationship with a national distributor, as well as one focussing on the Algarve.
• FFB France secured for Dormen Foods a listing at the extremely prestigious Hotel Negresco in Nice.
• FFB Netherlands has enabled organic salmon producers Framgord to secure listings with distributor Schmidt Zeevis to supply foodservice outlets. The product, which is of higher quality than most of the Scandinavian salmon that dominates the market, is proving popular with an anticipated 50-100 tons to be delivered in 2007. See Netherlands delights in organic salmon.
• Following an initial contact made by FFB France, upmarket retailer Picard has now launched two ethnic ready meals, supplied by Pataks, nationwide in over 600 stores.

Meet the buyer

• FFB The Netherlands and FFB Belgium brought representatives from foodservice giant Sodexho to London to visit supermarkets and suppliers in May.
• Sun Valley Ltd have received interest from three retailers following FFB France’s approaches to mainstream retailers and health food stores to encourage them to visit Sun Valley’s stand at PLMA, and to set up meetings with retailers who could not attend the exhibition.
• FFB France will be bringing 23 store managers from mainstream retailer, Auchan, to the UK for two days’ of store visits later this month. They are particularly interested in what the larger stores, such as Tesco Extra and Asda Supercentre, have to offer.

Events

• A Trade Development Visit to Russia is being organised as Russia is a fast-growing market for exports. There is also a lot of investment going into the Baltic States, including Romania and Bulgaria.
• An Asia Pacific workshop is to be held in Birmingham on 27 September 2007. The workshop will give practical guidance about the challenges posed by the Asia-Pacific markets and how to overcome them, using case studies and a range of speakers from UK freight forwarders, consolidators, distributors and retailers.
• Yorkshire companies have the opportunity to learn about opportunities in the Gulf States at a Gulf States workshop on 3 July. The workshop will cover new FFB research on the export opportunities for Halal meat suppliers. See our Opportunities in the Gulf States Workshop page for more information.
• FFB Portugal is assisting White & MacKay with an event where the Ambassador and 12 journalists will get to sample four rare and prestigious whiskies that are up to 40 years old.
• For the third year running, FFB France will coordinate, in conjunction with the Franco-British Chamber of Commerce, the 3rd British Week in Paris from 27th September to 7th October. The theme for this year will be the Rugby World Cup.
• FFB Portugal, FFB Nordic, and FFB Belgium will be presenting new research on the market for meat in Portugal, Sweden and Belgium to the MLC in June.
• FFB North America is preparing for the start of the Summer Fancy Food Show on 9 July and New York Trade Development Visit starting on 9 July. See our Summer Fancy Food Show page for more information.

Trends

• FFB Nordic reports that the two main trends in the Nordic region are Fair Trade products proving increasingly popular, as is the organic sector. Budget supermarket chain Lidl is even stocking Fair Trade produce, which has traditionally been directed almost exclusively to premium-level consumers.
• FFB North America reports that the removal of trans fats from food remains one of the key trends in North America. New York City has introduced legislation to stop using trans fats in food service establishments, and 10% of New York City restaurants will soon be affected by menu labelling rules requiring them to post the calorie content of meals on menus.

PR

• FFB Italy secured a half-page article on the Single Malt Club in Italian Men’s Vogue magazine, focussing on products from the Isle of Islay. National daily newspaper ‘Quotidiano National’ is also planning a feature on Scottish whisky, which FFB Italy is assisting with.
• Dutch butchers chain Keurschlagers is planning a joint media campaign with FFB The Netherlands and the MLC to promote English lamb. The campaign will feature leaflets, radio coverage and TV guide coverage (featuring the Netherlands’ celebrity weatherman!) promoting the Barbeque-er of the Year title.
• FFB Germany has launched a PR campaign to celebrate the introduction of Dormen Food’s finest quality nuts into three five star hotels. Three magazines have already featured the company, with more expected to follow as samples and cocktail shakers are sent to journalists.
• Having had its ready meals introduced into Albert Heijn stores across the Netherlands, FFB The Netherlands has secured a six-page feature on Noon and its products in the store magazine, which is the biggest magazine in the Netherlands with a circulation of more than three million.
• Three major trade magazines have featured Jordan’s cereals following FFB Germany’s PR activity sending bowls of cereals to key journalists, and a number of trade and consumer publications are set to follow after a mailing to 150 journalists.
• FFB Germany is working with leading trade magazine Lebensmittelzeitung (LZ) do produce a Great Britain Special to promote British food and drink to the German market, which will be published in September prior to ANUGA. This will involve German journalists visiting British companies in the first week of July. Companies interested in the German market who would like to meet the journalist should contact Simone Trimborn at FFB Germany on trimborn@foodfrombritain.de.
• FFB Belgium, on behalf of HCC, organised a press trip for a television crew to visit a Wales to film a Welsh lamb producer. They were joined by famous Belgian chef Christer Elfing, who cooked two fine dishes using the lamb. The programme will now be aired seven times in May on Belgian television.
• FFB Italy is assisting Weetabix with an advertising campaign being run in women’s magazines focusing on the health benefits of the product to expecting and new mothers. A separate campaign has seen samples and a free gift sent to journalists from the consumer press.
• Food Magazine, one of the most popular trade magazines in Italy, published a story on Kettle Chips’ new packaging and new flavours, following FFB Italy’s PR campaign.
  

08 June 2007