Eight U.S. companies from Maine, Massachusetts and New York, traveled to the Gulfood Food Show in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, February 23-26, 2009, where they had the opportunity to take advantage of Food Export-Northeast’s Food Show PLUS!^TM tradeshow enhancement services. These MAP funded services included an in-market briefing, local industry retail tours and pre-show product research regarding pricing, import regulation, competitor analysis. Two of the participating companies made an actual export sale at the show including an actual on-site sale to a buyer for $125,000. This marked the company’s first-time export sale to the market! In total, the companies made 393 contacts with new buyers and projected sales of over $7 million in the next two years. They also established 18 new distributorships.

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.