Jams and Jellies

1. Introduction

My company is called “Apidava”, a limited responsibility company from Romania which produces honey. Our objective is to extend our product on a foreign market. Because we have little experience in international marketing, we tried to follow a pattern of logical steps in order for our product to be successful.

First of all, we chose to sell a bio-product such as honey, because we believe that, if properly advertised, it will be successful. Why? Because bio-products promote the idea of health. At a European level, the market for organic products is constantly growing, especially since many governments encourage their consumption. After a long period, when the international markets were dominated by industrialized, synthetic and chemical goods, nowadays we can observe the modern world’s tendency to return to nature and the goods it offers. Among the beneficial products the environment gives us, we can consider honey as one of the most valuable ones. It can be used in the food industry, in the cosmetic and pharmaceutical industry and it is guaranteed by countless studies that it will improve your health.

The next thing we did was to decide on some potential partners for the international trade. The main targets were countries where the population income was medium to high and there was a great demand for ecological products. In order to penetrate the international market, the firm had to conduct a market research to find the best candidate. We had to choose between Belgium and Brazil in the end.

We thought about Belgium because it has a relatively small domestic market for honey, although the consumption is rather high (0.77 kg per capita). More than that, Belgium, and especially the region of Flanders, has a stable economy and both Belgium and Romania are members of the EU, which offers certain transport facilities, such as reductions or tax exemptions (no custom fees for example).

We also took Brazil into consideration because it is the sixth biggest economy in the world and still growing at fast pace. We believe Brazil is a good opportunity to expand to the South-American market.

2. Description of our product

Honey is not only nutritious but it was shown by specialized surveys to have an effective therapeutic action, with great results in the digestive disorders and hepatic-biliary diseases, cardiovascular, respiratory, nervous system, in nutrition and infectious diseases in skin and blood disorders. That is why we considered turning our life-long passion for apiculture into a profitable business.

We opened numerous shops to promote a natural, authentic, healthy way of life. More than that, we wanted to promote the Romanian traditions and the hard work for the future generations to appreciate and be inspired by our concept. This is why we are concentrated on obtaining the best quality for the honey that we produce, only by natural means, with organic preservatives and no synthetic additives. Apidava commercializes different honey specialties, like acacia honey, linden honey, and raspberry honey.

Other than honey, in its natural state, we also produce honey derivatives, like pollen, propolis, and bee bread.

3. Country characteristics

Next, we decided to dig a little deeper and find out a few more details about the countries in which we want to extend our business. So, we put together o short characterization, with the most important facts that would help us get more familiarized with these countries.

A. Brazil

Name: Federative Republic of Brazil

Capital City: Brasilia

Official language: Portuguese

Governments: federal republic

Location: Eastern South America, bordering the Atlantic Ocean