Since 1996, the RIEDC’s International Trade Office has been organizing trade missions around the world, helping companies connect to foreign markets individually by traveling to meet key business and government leaders. The three-woman team works closely with the U.S. Commercial Service abroad, which provides local contacts and market research and helps organize trade missions and individual company trips. The latest mission, led by Mezei’s associate director, Katherine Tufts, took five local companies to Mexico in May to sell products from a diesel additive to electronic components.
PBN: How did you start doing this?
MEZEI: We started in 1996. … Then-Bank of Boston had done a study that showed New England as a region was underperforming the rest of the United States in terms of exports. We were focusing more on Europe and Canada, while the rest of the country was starting to look more toward Asian and Latin American markets. Bank of Boston had a grant program going, I applied, and they funded the startup for a three-year trade mission program.
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PBN: Where did you go?
MEZEI: The first year we went to South America, Brazil and Argentina. The next year we went to Asia – Singapore, Malaysia and South Korea – and were very successful. We also spun off a program called the market entry program, which is very similar to the trade mission. We can put together basically the same program for them but they go on their time frame, and we don’t go with them. This week we have someone in Warsaw.
PBN: How are your trade missions different from official U.S. trips?
MEZEI: The U.S. Commercial Service does industry-specific trade missions, and we participate in some of those; they had an auto trade mission to Mexico last year and the year before, for example. But they tend to be very niche-focused. (The RIEDC, by contrast, identifies a few sectors that are good prospects for each country, then recruits companies in those sectors.)
PBN: What if a company is looking at how to outsource their labor to Mexico; is that something you could help them with?
MEZEI: No. We don’t get involved in that at all. This is strictly export promotion, because exports help make companies stronger, more competitive, and they grow jobs.
PBN: How much export business do Rhode Island companies already do?
MEZEI: Last year it was about $1.3 billion. … It was about a 9-percent increase (from 2003). For a couple of years after Sept. 11 there was a bit of a dip, in Rhode Island and nationally, just because companies didn’t want to travel, and then there was SARS.
PBN: What kind of companies make good exporters?
MEZEI: There really are two components that are necessary: They have to have a product that’s very competitive and that is doing well in the U.S., and they have to be really interested in going through the process of exporting. There are lots of hurdles that can be overcome, but it takes longer to get your return on investment, and you have to persevere.
PBN: Do you have to be operating at a national level already?
MEZEI: With some products, yes. With other products, particularly IT, these companies move so quickly that some of them do take the approach of we’re going to penetrate the U.S. and overseas. So it’s somewhat driven by sector.
PBN: MEZEI: It goes back to how unique your service is, and do people want it. If it’s really unique, you can be really small … or if you’re really good at it. … But there are size and resource restrictions that just limit it for some companies.
PBN: MEZEI: Yes, particularly if a company has not exported before. We would try and guide them. Everyone wants to go to China, because it’s a huge market. And we say, have you thought about Canada? It’s closer, same time zone, easier to deal with, it is still a foreign country. And China is a very complicated market, so what we try to do is make sure they do the research and get the right feedback, because it’s not right for everybody.
PBN: How successful have the trips been?
MEZEI: We ask companies to project sales as a result of the mission, and go back to the companies 18 months later and say, what actually happened? What we’ve found – right now we’re collecting data from activities in 2003 – we’ve found that overall, using round numbers, since 1996, there were projected sales of almost $40 million, and the actual was $43 million.
PBN: How does this change the companies?
MEZEI: To stay competitive and keep your U.S. market, you need to be out there, see what your competitors are doing, and be sharper. There was a company that went with us to Korea, and their competition there was German, so it puts you on an equal footing with foreign competitors. That’s part of our strategy, to go on the offensive rather than just being on the defensive.
