Healthy Food Ingredients Seeks Organic Growth

Healthy Food Ingredients (HFI), a specialty ingredient brand located in Fargo, North Dakota, that markets flax, ancient grains, oils, pulses soybeans and other crops recently received a customized, worldwide research project from the Rural Export Center in Fargo, ND. They started with a matrix to narrow all the countries of the world to six, followed by communication with the top 6 prospective countries, and culminating in in-depth research on their top 3 markets. Research was conducted on the gluten free, non-genetically modified organism (GMO), and organic food ingredient trends in each country. Funded with a Small Business Administration (SBA) STEP Grant through the North Dakota Trade Office, the Matrix + 3 Country Report included: 1) Identifying potential buyers/partners/distributors, 2) comparative landed cost analysis incorporating shipping costs and import tariff and tax rates, 3) an overview of the gluten free, non-GMO, and organic food trends in each country, and 4) relevant trade shows.

“The RAISE reports that the Rural Export Center put together for us have been very valuable in terms of understanding the current, real-time landscape in markets that we see the most potential for export business as well as market research and tariff/VAT information provided in the reports,” said Jennifer Tesch, Chief Marketing Officer for HFI. “We appreciate the REC’s expertise in these areas which allows us to efficiently gain comprehensive market data and intelligence. In addition, the use of STEP funding has been instrumental in giving us access to this type of information.”