Everybody needs to eat and drink. If you’re a food or beverage manufacturer from New York State, feeding international demand doesn’t have to leave you hungry for help and thirsty for assistance. Global NY, part of Empire State Development (ESD), provides funding, marketing, connections, technical assistance, and trade missions.
Join FuzeHub for a discussion with Kathryn Bamberger, Senior International Trade Manager for Global NY, and learn about programs like STEP and EMAS. There’s also the Global NY Grant Fund Program and the curiously-named Certificate of Free Sale, evidence that products are legally sold or distributed without restriction.
Then join Global NY and FuzeHub for Vitality in the Valley: Farm to Factory in Herkimer, NY on June 3 and 4th. Register here.
Transcript:
Steve Melito: Hey everybody, welcome to New York State Manufacturing Now, the podcast that’s powered by FuzeHub. I’m your host, Steve Melito. Today we’re talking to Kathryn Bamberger, senior International Trade Manager for Global New York. Katherine is based in Albany, but Global New York helps New York State companies enter or expand their presence in the global marketplace. That includes food and beverage manufacturing, something that we’ll talk about today. Kathryn, welcome to New York State Manufacturing Now.
Kathryn Bamberger: Thank you, Steve, it’s great to be here.
Steve Melito: Third time’s a charm. I’m so glad that we’re here doing this and you know right off the top. So New York State has several thousand food and beverage manufacturers. That’s a pretty good market. What would you like them to know about global New York in general?
Kathryn Bamberger: Well, our goal primarily is to help companies market and sell their products outside of the United States. So that means navigating different cultural mores, language barriers, regulatory environment. You know there are lots of little details that help make a company successful and that will help them not only in those international markets but also domestically. I mean, there’s nothing like a good story saying you know, did you know, we’re being sold in London or Japan, or you know South America. It’s a great story to be able to tell and it’s always exciting when people see things from their hometown or their home state in parts far flung.
Steve Melito: It is. I would imagine too it can help you to get recognized. Sometimes it’s hard to be sort of a star in your own backyard. People take things for granted. So yeah, if you can be over in London then you can become famous next door. Let’s talk about some specific programs, starting with the Export Marketing Assistance Service, or EMAS.
Kathryn Bamberger: Yes, EMAS, because we’re all about acronyms here in government.
Steve Melito: How does it help food and beverage manufacturers?
Kathryn Bamberger: So not only food and beverage, but really any manufacturers, and we work with some contractors who actually live in these markets overseas. So they’re stationed in 187 different countries around the world cultural differences, as well as distribution or supply chain or any of those other things that a company would need to know in order to be successful. And then they also can introduce them to local importers and distributors so that that relationship can be established. Even if they’re not necessarily seeing each other and being able to shake hands at first, they can find out a lot of information. You know now, with technology and websites and the ability to do this kind of video chats and things like that, they can have a representative on the ground in the country to help introduce the New York food and beverage manufacturers with a local partner, and that’s a free service. It’s offered to companies that are at least adding more than half of their value within the state of New York, and that’s typically everything from intellectual property, warehousing, manufacturing. Manufacturing is the easiest thing, but we also have some flexibility in counting other kinds of inputs just to make sure that they hit that criteria.
Steve Melito: Great. So that’s the EMAS program Export Marketing Assistance Service. And the next acronym, a little easier to remember, is STEP, that’s the Global New York State Trade Expansion Program. And it lets small businesses apply for up to $10,000 in grants.
Kathryn Bamberger: Right. So that program is funded by our federal partners at the Small Business Administration, and because the balance of trade is so important to us, like we need to make sure that we’re playing in the global marketplace, and so we want to make sure that small businesses have an opportunity to access those markets as well. That’s why we provide these programs. So it’s not just that it’s something nice to do, it’s something that’s important to do for the global economy and for the state’s economy, and so we have this program where companies can get reimbursed for some of these export marketing programs that they might undertake, and that’s everything from trade shows that are held here in the United States as well as overseas. They might need to do some tweaks to their website translation of some of their materials or promotional brochures, or do some social media advertising Any of those kinds of things to help them grow their business in these foreign markets are eligible for a 50% reimbursement up to $10,000 in any given program year.
Steve Melito: Okay, and so for some of the website work. I would imagine that’s for localization and the local language. Is that right?
Kathryn Bamberger: That’s part of it, but also, you know, sometimes selling platforms or having understanding of exchange rates or if there’s any shipping requirements that are different from their domestic markets, anything on the website that helps foreign customers navigate their website and be able to place orders.
Steve Melito: Okay, and it’s a good way to go to some of those big European trade shows, right?
Kathryn Bamberger: European or domestic. So there are some that are here in the United States, including the fancy food shows, the natural products expos, sweets and snacks in Chicago, private label manufacturers. Those are all shows that have an international marketplace because those foreign buyers will come to the US to see the best and brightest in the in the industry. But yes, also the big trade shows in Germany, in London, all over the world. There’s a really big one that just took place in February in Dubai, that’s called the Gulf Food Show and that’s a really cool one. There’s shows in Japan, South America, America, Canada, really all over the world, because you know, everybody’s got to eat.
Steve Melito: That’s for sure. So that’s the STEP program. This next program doesn’t have an acronym, it’s just the Global New York Grant Fund Program. That’s correct. It lets small businesses apply for grants up to $25,000 to begin or expand exporting, which to me sounds a lot like STEP. But how is it different and what should people know about it?
Kathryn Bamberger: It is very different and it’s one that was launched when sometimes the federal funding can be volatile. So this was one that is state funded and I like to compare the two. STEP is kind of like an a la carte menu so you apply for an activity, you complete the activity, you get paid, and even though it’s a $10,000 overall limit, each type of activity has a cap amount that’s a little bit smaller. So trade shows are, say, $5,000 in reimbursement on a $10,000 or more spend the Global New York Fund you can combine multiple activities and include other things such as product certifications, and those are all combined into a single grant application. So it’s a little bit more money, it’s a little bit more involved in terms of an application process and you only are paid at the end of all of the project’s completion. So you might be out of pocket a little bit longer, but the total amount that you can access is larger, and so that’s really the distinguishing factor between the two grant programs. The other thing is that trade organizations and nonprofits so industry associations, food processing associations, associations, food processing associations, chambers of commerce or other consortia of multiple companies can apply for this funding, which is not true of the STEP grant. That’s only for companies.
Steve Melito: Okay, good Thanks for explaining that. Those are some pretty key distinctions. So Global New York can also provide something called a certificate of free sale to companies who can’t obtain this document elsewhere. What the heck is a certificate of free sale to companies who can’t obtain this document elsewhere? What the heck is a certificate of free sale and why would I want one?
Kathryn Bamberger: So, technically, the certificate of free sale indicates to a foreign government that this product is the same product that they’re offering for sale in their domestic home market, that it’s not encumbered by any regulatory restrictions or anything, and that it is available. It’s an export document. There are lots of different kinds. That’s one of many that an importing government might require of a company. So for the Department of Agriculture and Markets they inspect a lot of food processors and for any of the companies that they inspect they will provide this certificate of free sale. Oftentimes companies will fall out of their jurisdiction, either because they’re not doing any regulated processing in the state of New York, and that’s you know. Another aside on the STEP grant because it’s a federal program, the processing doesn’t necessarily have to be in New York. The company needs to be headquartered in New York, but the processing or the ingredients could come from anywhere in the US. And so when that’s the case, we will work with companies that can’t obtain the certificate through the Department of Agriculture and Markets or through the federal government and provide this official New York State letter indicating that, yes, we’re familiar with the company, we’re familiar with their operations. We don’t have them in violation of any of our regulations in the state and that this is the same product that they’re offering for sale here in the United States. It’s sometimes used as a health certificate, sometimes used in lieu of other documents, but it’s really just an assurance to the foreign importing government that, yes, this is an official product, an official company, and gives them some assurances that they’re not just some fly-by-night organization.
Steve Melito: Makes sense. So there’s a partnership between Global New York and some other organizations, including New York Ag and Markets, to help food and beverage manufacturers develop some plans, access capital and sell in Canada. Can you tell us some more, including maybe how to sign up for this?
Kathryn Bamberger: Sure, absolutely. So. We’ve partnered with the Small Business Development Centers across the state. They’re located on a lot of SUNY campuses, and then the Department of Agriculture and Markets is also a member of a consortium of Northeastern and Midwestern states called Food Export. So the Small Business Development Centers are really great for companies that are in maybe earlier business mode. So maybe they’ve got a home processor’s license or maybe they’re really just doing contract manufacturing or a small commercial kitchen manufacturing and they’re not necessarily ready to scale up or they need some capital. And so that’s where the small business development centers can really help them develop a marketing plan and then a growth plan, and part of that growth plan might be something like starting to export. That can help increase the production capacity, find new markets to help balance out some of the volatility that they might be experiencing as they access newer and bigger customers. And their counseling is not necessarily specifically to export, but they do actually have an international exporting expert on their staff that covers the whole state and then a lot of those same programs that we offer through Global New York are also offered through food export organization, their criteria being at least half the product has to be grown in the United States.
So for some companies that are in confectionery or coffee roasting, chocolate, things that aren’t grown in the United States, that’s where we can help, and so, rather than having companies try to figure out which programs they belong in and where they are, we formed this consortium of these export partners to help get companies the right information and the right kind of assistance that they need at the right time, and so we’re trying to bring companies along that process to grow. And, of course, our next nearest largest company customer and best friend is Canada, because we share a fairly significant border with not only two of the provinces but also, you know, most of their population lives within a very close drive of upstate New York and they have a very strong affinity for American products. We share a language, you know, even with the French language requirements of Quebec, most of the business transactions with importers and distributors, the regulatory environment, all of that is all very similar and familiar, and so they’re a great first market, particularly for a lot of food and beverage companies.
Steve Melito: Good to know. So last year, global New York sponsored an annual FuzeHub event called Vitality in the Valley, and we thank you for that. It was great. What were some of the conversations that you had at this event and are you going to come back this year?
Kathryn Bamberger: Well, of course it’s a great event. Not only do we get to highlight some of the great food and beverage that’s in the local area, but also, you know, networking and all of the business supports and opportunities that FuzeHub has to offer again to help with that scaling up or fixing you know, fixing hurdles or bumps in the road and into being a successful company through any kind of growth periods. And so the conversations that I tend to have it’s interesting. You know I’ve been doing this work for the state for quite some time now and still more often than not will come across companies who’ve never heard of it, have no idea what we do and didn’t even realize that exporting was anything they could even consider for their business, because it’s just something they’re not familiar with. It is a business of details, it’s a business of relationships, but it is always interesting to me to find how many people just really don’t even consider this as an opportunity or possibility and it really is a good one. Other kinds of conversations is, you know, just some of the storytelling like not realizing that you know once upon a time our friends at Chobani had bought a little yogurt plant in upstate New York and were not the global powerhouse that they are now and they took advantage of some of these programs and grew the business and they’ve made some smart investments and some smart decisions and now they’ve got plants elsewhere as well and they’re selling all around the world. But also that some of the most iconic global brands came out of the state of New York. You know not only Chobani but Jell-O, really, and you know we had a lot of bird’s eye plants in upstate New York. Pepsi is a New York brand, so we have a lot of those stories to tell about companies that have grown and done well. We have lots of stories about companies that have grown and done well. We have lots of stories about companies that have just for a period of time, really met the right person at the right time and were willing to entertain the opportunity. Maybe they had to make some tweaks to their product in terms of packaging or sizing or flavor profiles in order to be successful in that foreign market, but we have companies that are selling bagels in Japan and exporting beer. Everybody’s interested in buying New York wines. We’ve got a lot of companies that do incredible pastry and bread products. We ship pizza, frozen pizza all over the world, ice cream just lots and lots of examples, and those stories are always fun to share.
Steve Melito: For sure I’m going to get hungry. That’s some good stuff. I am a little hungry, so hey. Last question for you, Kathryn how can food and beverage manufacturers get in touch with you, or with Global New York in general, for some more information?
Kathryn Bamberger: Sure. So of course we have a website it’s part of the Empire State Economic Development no-transcript and, of course, always through FuzeHub. You know FuzeHub is a great partner and makes a lot of references for us, which we’re really grateful for. And of course, you know, anybody can and I’m talking to people across the northeastern part of the state for my day job but food and beverage from across the state, given my history with agriculture and markets, and they can always reach out to me directly too.
Steve Melito: Excellent. Kathryn Bamberger, thank you so much for being part of New York State Manufacturing Now.
Kathryn Bamberger: Steve, it’s a pleasure. It’s always great to talk with you.
Steve Melito: You betcha. So we’ve been talking to Kathryn Bamberger, senior International Trade Manager for Global New York, which helps New York State companies, including food and beverage manufacturers, enter or expand their presence in the global marketplace. Before we go, I’d like to invite you to mark your calendars for an upcoming event where food and beverage manufacturing and agriculture meet. It’s called Vitality in the Valley, the event that you heard Kathryn and I talk about. It’s scheduled this year for June 3rd and 4th at Herkimer College in Herkimer, New York. June 3rd is exhibitor setup in a networking reception with Amazing Cuisine. June 4th is the main B2B event, which will include a keynote address from just about the biggest name in agriculture in New York State, and I’m not going to tell you just yet to keep you in suspense. If you’d like more information now, check out FuzeHub.com, slash viv2025 or email [email protected] On behalf of FuzeHub and New York State Manufacturing Now, this is Steve Melito signing off.