In the framework of "Villa María Exporta" Business Round, which was organized by ProCórdoba Agency and the Association of Entrepreneurs of the Central Region (AERCA) with the support of the the Federal Investment Council (CFI), 220 business meetings were carried out.
The ten international operators who participated in this activity met with 40 Argentinean food companies. There were 28 companies from Córdoba and the rest were from Buenos Aries, Entre Ríos and Santa Fe. In 2015 edition, progress was made in negotiations and the possibility of carrying out operations with businessmen from Brazil, Bolivia, Chile, Honduras, Peru, Uruguay and Mexico, in the short and medium term, was analyzed. These are destinations strategically selected by the supplies of the local market.
Regarding business opportunities, Fernando Arenillas, from the Chilean company called "Distribuidora Arenillas" (Arenillas Distributor), said: "We are part of this Business Roundtable because we want to expand our sales into different parts of the world." He also said that the company wants to work with Argentina, especially with Córdoba, because "we know that the manufactured products are good, mainly the dairy products."
Regarding the progress during the job interviews, Arenillas highlighted:
"We are very interested in having a Peanut Company in Chile. I've had interesting meetings and I hope to work with you in the next two or three months."
On his part, Miguel Ángel Velázquez, representative of the Bolivian company called "Caracoles Naturales y distribuidor de productos gourmet" (Natural Snails and Distributor of Gourmet Products), will set up a business office in Santa Cruz de la Sierra and he wants to expand the range of products to sell. Regarding this, he said:
"There are business interests here, mainly in the bakery sector. Moreover, we are interested in what the field of natural oils, peanut oils and others can offer us."
IntraNational Round, Promotion of Córdoba Exporters and visits to companies. In this opportunity, for the first time, an Intranational Business Round was carried out. It was jointly organized with the Argentine Confederation of Medium-Sized Companies (CAME).
The supermarket chains, "Buenos Días" and "Almacor", were interested in the business interviews with local offerers. Regarding the proposal, Carolina Benito, President of AERCA, said:
"People of CAME got surprised at the dimensions of the event that we organized and they said that we have to carry out a bigger round for all the province. We will continue working jointly for this."
Likewise, foreign operators had an agenda of visits to local factories that was developed in parallel with the activities on 3rd Thursday and 4th Friday. Through them, they were able to know the facilities and mode of production of the following companies: Vasquetto Nutrición Animal (animal nutrition), Elcor SRL (butters, creams and high-quality dairy products), Lemarc (exporter of popcorn, peanut, oregano, and coriander), Noal (dairy company that produces cheese, butter, milk powder and whey powder) and Absa.
With the aim of strategically promoting the local production at the international level, in the event, a totem was set up with access to Córdoba Exporters platform (http://www.exportadoresdecordoba.com/en/index.asp). This way, businessmen and people who are interested in it had the opportunity to surf the website and know more about this free and public virtual directory and its multiple tools. In this website, there is information about export companies, companies with export potential, and companies that provide foreign trade operations with services and associations or organizations involved.
