Green Seed Group - a network of international trading offices built on the foundations of the now defunct Food From Britain (FFB) - aims to target the growth of the European import-export market.
Offices in different countries around the world would work to strengthen international trade globally, said Green Seed UK md Simon Waring. “For example, a Japanese company operating in France could rely on the French Green Seed office."
However, he went on: “Our first priority will be to maintain and expand the UK client base. Our brief will be working with UK businesses, helping them develop internationally - that continues FFB’s work - and assisting companies from other markets to get a stepping stone into the EU.”
It wasn’t just small-to-medium-sized businesses that would be helped by Greenseed, said Waring - large FFB clients such as Premier Foods, Associated British Foods and Cadbury would remain on the books. “We helped build [Premier brand] Quorn into an international business and it’s now a $25M brand in the US market. A lot of big companies are still relatively inexperienced internationally.”
As far as the export market for UK foods was concerned, Waring said meat exports were “the big success story”, with 38% growth in the past year. “Lamb and beef have done very well - there are £500M of exports in red meat.”
In terms of general UK food exports, 80% still went to the EU, which continued to offer opportunities. But the fastest growth in the near future would come from China, Eastern and Central Europe, said Waring.
Whereas FFB was part-funded by the government, Green Seed is entirely self-funding. It has nine offices in Europe, plus one in North America and one in Australia.