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Dakota Prairie Organic Flour Company, located in Harvey, North Dakota, has participated in the Branded Program for three years. Before joining the 50-percent cost share program to help with marketing their products in other countries, their export sales accounted for only five percent of their total sales and included just one international market, Japan. Today, thanks to Branded Program funding, exporting sales account for 40 percent of the company’s overall sales. The North Dakota supplier has also gained a market presence in Hong Kong, Japan, Korea, Peru, and Taiwan. As a result of their growing exporting sales combined with their domestic sales growth, the company has added new facilities and doubled their staff in the last nine months. According to Dakota Prairie Organic Flour Company CEO, Grayson Hoberg, “We’ve used Branded Program funding to help us obtain translators for tradeshows. Last year we attended eight tradeshows using Branded funds and this year we’ll attend 20 tradeshows. If it weren’t for the Branded Program, we wouldn’t have been able to go after the overseas markets. Branded Program assistance makes the cost of exporting palatable. If you get even one customer per tradeshow, it pays off and we’ve averaged three new customers per tradeshow!”
Offered through Food Export–Midwest and Food Export–Northeast, the Branded Program is a cost-share service that assists small Midwestern and Northeastern suppliers with promoting their food and agricultural products in foreign markets. The Branded Program provides participants with a 50-percent cost reimbursement on eligible international marketing endeavors. Dakota Prairie is currently using Branded Program funding to help expand their exporting to Argentina, Chile, China, and Vietnam. In fact, the supplier just returned from a tradeshow to Argentina and will be attending a tradeshow in Vietnam next month. “I highly recommend the Branded Program to help small U.S. suppliers export their products to other countries…but you have to make sure you have a product that’s in demand in those markets. Organic products are in demand all over the world and we are one of the few producers of organic flour,” added Grayson.
Dakota Prairie Organic Flour Company produces a full line of flours, grains, and feed, including custom blends such as low-ash flours milled from grains grown for flavor. Their line of organic flours is specifically developed to meet the needs of discriminating manufacturers, offering a level of flavor, consistency, and reliability never before available in organic flours. Dakota Prairie’s grains are free from chemicals and GMOs.
Food Export–Midwest and Food Export–Northeast are private, non-profit associations of Midwestern and Northeastern state agricultural promotion agencies that use federal, state, and industry resources to promote the export of Midwestern and Northeastern food and agricultural products. Food Export–Midwest and Food Export–Northeast administer many services through Market Access Program (MAP) funding from the USDA, Foreign Agricultural Service.
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