We close the first half of 2020 with some good news: during the summer we will start a collaboration with Greek actors to boost exports of organic products from Greece. Out of the classic European Mediterranean countries, Italy and Spain have succeeded really well with their export of organic food products. Greece has lagged behind.
Olive tree by the Med. Picture credit: https://greekmythology.wikia.org/wiki/Olive_Tree
As the corona pandemic hit the hospitality industry particularly bad, and tourism is such an important source of revenue to the rural Greece, there is an urgent need to find more profitable markets for the agricultural products. It feels good to be able to help. This is a way to use the corona recovery to make business greener. It will mean fantastic opportunities for suppliers as well as buyers.
In the first phase, we will create a kind of substitute for the postponed Nordic Organic Food Fair. Real life meetings cannot be entirely replaced by digital ones, but we can get a long way by using the tools that have helped business survive the pandemic. We will organize a number of webinars during the summer and autumn, aiming at a large number of successful digital match-making meetings between Greek suppliers and Nordic (and other) buyers. The meetings will be held in the same week that NOFF would have been arranged; November 9-13.
In the next phase, we will build an efficient logistics solution for the Greek suppliers. This makes it possible to send samples and initial deliveries at very short notice, which in turn cuts time to market considerably.
If you are the least interested in getting in touch with Greek suppliers of organic foods, feel free to send an email to info@moreganic.nu and we will be sure to invite you!
July is the peak of summer vacations in Sweden, so things will slow down a bit at the office for a few weeks. However we always keep an eye on our inboxes, so make sure to get in touch if there’s anything we can do to assist!
Vi slutar första halvåret med en kul nyhet: under sommaren kommer vi att inleda ett samarbete med ReCo Exports för att bygga upp exporten av ekologiska produkter från Grekland. Av de klassiska europeiska medelhavsländerna, så har Italien och Spanien lyckats riktigt bra med sin export av ekologiska livsmedelsprodukter. Grekland har halkat efter.
Olive tree by the Med. Picture credit: https://greekmythology.wikia.org/wiki/Olive_Tree
Eftersom corona-pandemin slår särskilt hårt mot besöksnäringen, som är så viktig för den grekiska landsbygden, så blir behovet av att hitta mer lönsamma marknader ännu större än annars. Det känns bra att kunna hjälpa till.
ReCo Exports är ett företag som jobbat med grekiska produkter på den brittiska marknaden i många år. Företaget representerar också ett antal eko- och hållbarhetsmässor i Grekland. Det är alltså en erfaren partner vi jobbar med.
I en första fas gäller det att ersätta den uppskjutna Nordic Organic Food Fair. Vi gör det genom att dels ordna ett par webinarier under sommaren och hösten, dels genom att ordna ett stort antal digitala match-making möten mellan grekiska leverantörer och nordiska (och andra) köpare. Mötena kommer att hållas i vecka 46, dvs samma vecka som NOFF skulle ha ordnats.
I nästa fas kommer vi att bygga upp en effektiv logistiklösning för de grekiska leverantörerna. Därmed blir det möjligt att skicka varuprover och inledande leveranser med mycket kort varsel.
Den som är det minsta intresserad av att få kontakt med grekiska leverantörer av ekologiska livsmedel får gärna skicka ett e-post till info@moreganic.nu så ser vi till att bjuda in er!
När vi startade Moreganic Sourcing AB var det en utgångspunkt att vi skulle jobba med många olika länder. Därför kändes det självklart att vi skulle ha webbplatsen på engelska. Ända tills någon på kontoret häromdagen sa ”undrar vad som händer om man googlar på export av ekologiska produkter”. Då insåg vi att det fanns en anledning till att ganska få kontakter som vi får via vår webbsida kommer från Sverige…
Vi kommer fortsatt att ha engelska som arbetsspråk, men nu har vi i alla fall lagt upp ett menyval ”På Svenska” och en sida där vi förklarar att vi kan det här med export, import och sourcing av ekologiska och KRAV-märkta produkter och livsmedel. Kolla gärna här, och kom för all del med synpunkter!
För lika övertygade som vi är om att världsmarknaden för ekologiska produkter kommer att öka med 10-15% CAGR de närmaste 10-15 åren, lika säkra är vi på att svenska ekologiska livsmedel, och ännu hellre de KRAV-märkta, har goda chanser att få bra betalt!
The ELOA project is a post graduate program offered to Finnish students by means of a collaboration between four Finnish universities of applied sciences. The project name is an acronym that translates to ’boosting food export’ and constitutes a 30 ECTS polytechnic level program.The main funder of the project is the Finnish Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry. The ELOA program consists of six blocks of themes ranging from basics of the food industry to personal salesmanship and consumer focused product development. ELOA provide students with practical insights on building and implementing strategies for international marketing of food products. More info about the program can be found here.
The program features lectures given by industry experts covering the different areas. In normal years, these lectures are mostly given face-to-face, but also recorded to be added to the lecture library of the ELOA program. As the Covid-19-pandemic made travel impossible for students as well as lecturers, the program coordinators have started to invite lecturers to speak on line through available platforms. This in turn has made recording easier, as this is a normal feature of most video meeting platforms.
Turning a problem into a possibility
As planning started for a block on consumer insights and export to other Nordic markets, Marru Kraft at the Lapland University of Applied Sciences reached out to Moreganic Sourcing AB to inquire about providing such a lecture, planned to be three sessions of 45 minutes each. Johan Cejie at Moreganic saw the potential for development:
”As I was thinking about the request from the Lapland UAS, it struck me that the pandemic has forced pretty much every one to get comfortable with video meetings. Also, people that are usually busy traveling now have a little more space in their calendars. Perhaps these people would agree to share some of their experience?”
A screen shot from ”Overview of the Nordic Food Market”, the first of three lectures delivered to ELOA.
As anyone involved in marketing knows, the human attention span is continuously getting shorter and shorter . With the tidal wave of webinars flooding our inboxes, most of us have developed a habit of having lectures and webinars as a background hum. As a response, Zoom offers organizers to track the attendees attention. Look at something else for 30 secs, and the organizer will know!
Johan Cejie continues: ”Well… I thought to myself that it is going to be very challenging to keep the students attention for three hours straight. Introducing new faces and other viewpoints could help.”
As a result Moreganic contacted a few experienced persons and some master students looking at shopper behavior, and they were all keen to contribute.
Delivering insights and inspiration
In the beginning of this week, we delivered three lectures containing one or two short interviews per lecture. Among others Per Rosengren, former sales manager at Saltå Kvarn, was one of the contributors. Mr Rosengren contributed with his experiences on business cultures in the different Nordic markets as well as the internal life of retail chains. Mirea Wolf and Cecilia Melén , master students at Uppsala University, contributed with their innovative model for surveying sustainability oriented consumers.
Mr Per Rosengren being Interviewed as part of Moreganic’s lecture ”Overview of Nordic Food Market”
Marru Kraft, who is organizing this block of the ELOA, was thrilled by the result:
”I’m really happy with the videos supplied by Moreganic. By creative use of the technology, and in a short time, they have been able to provide expertise in a new way. I can’t wait to hear what our students say.”
While we at Moreganic really miss meeting all our friends in real life, the pandemic also provide opportunities for development. This format, sprung out of a problem with traveling, will be part of our offer to our customers.
