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THE COMPETITION IN 1997
U.S. and
Competitor Expenditures on Export Promotion and
Export Subsidies for Agricultural, Forestry and Fishery Products
Spain
The Spanish Foreign Trade Institute (ICEX), an Agency of the Ministry of Commerce and Tourism, is responsible for diversified government-funded foreign market promotion programs for food and agricultural products, as well as for promotion of other non-food and agricultural items such as industrial products, consumer goods, and designer clothing. In addition, some of Spain's regional autonomous governments have trade promotion offices that cooperate with ICEX. The government of Spain has maintained its overall budget for trade promotion of food products at about $40 million for 1997. While this is a reduction from 1996 in dollar terms, the budget in terms of Spanish peseta was unchanged. Government funding for ICEX includes fixed and operating costs.
Spanish Promotion Activities:
ICEX promotional activities for agricultural products include sponsorship of and participation in trade fairs, point-of-sale promotions, market research, trade missions, training, and direct assistance to exporters. The Institute's promotional activities abroad are supported by 11 promotional centers, seven of which promote food and beverages. These organizations are located in New York, Toronto, Dusseldorf, The Hague, London, Paris, and Milan. In addition, ICEX promotes agricultural products through 80 trade offices around the world. ICEX has strengthened itself by forming a consortium with five firms in the food and agriculture sector in an effort to consolidate sales strategy and advertising efforts.
One of ICEX’s strategies to promote exports is to encourage groups of small companies to form Export Consortia. These groups must meet certain threshold requirements and are eligible for ICEX funding for four years. An example of such a consortium is an association of Spain’s pork processors. Given the large number of small firms that make up Spain’s food industry, this program has proved to be very successful. Recent ICEX activities in cooperation with private sector commodity associations include the 1996 promotion campaign by the Rioja Wine Exporters Group to promote wine in five EU countries and two non-EU countries, and the campaign with Asoliva, an olive oil exporters association, to promote olive oil in the United States, Australia, Japan and Canada.
In 1997, ICEX participated with official pavilions in 14 international food promotional events around the world, including the U.S. Fancy Food Fair in New York, ANUGA in Germany, FOODEX in Japan and SIAL-MERCOSUR in Argentina. Other ICEX activities in 1997 included a number of trade missions in the dairy, meat, and canned fruit and vegetable sectors. Advertising and point-of-sale promotions are employed for fresh fruits and vegetables and for olive oil. During 1997, the ICEX budget emphasized promotion activity for meat and poultry, wine, processed foods (mainly canned fruits and olives), fish, fresh fruits and vegetables, dairy products, olive oil and nuts.
The Spanish Foreign Cooperation Association (ACEX), a leading private export promotion group, was created in 1992 with the objective of opening additional markets in emerging countries. ACEX is mainly comprised of food industry members. ACEX members create and share information on international food markets. Its current emphasis on expanding distribution centers in Russia and expanding to other East European markets. It does not receive any funding from the government.
In addition, the Madrid-based International Olive Oil Council (IOOC), primarily focuses on promotion of olive oil and table olives for all olive producing countries. Although the IOOC is an international organization, the Spanish olive industry directly benefits from IOOC worldwide marketing programs that are funded in part by the Government of Spain through payment of its IOOC membership dues. No funding information is available for the IOOC.
Competitor Activity:
Most competitor activities, including trade missions, food fairs and seminars, are conducted by other European countries. France promotes dairy products, meat, fruits and vegetables, fish, and wine through SOPEXA, while French grain is promoted by EONIC. Italy’s ICE promotes processed foods, fresh fruits and vegetables and wine. Great Britain promotes grains through British Cereal Exports, potatoes through the U.K. Potato Marketing Board and processed foods and fish through Food from Britain. The Netherlands promotes cheese, veal, fish and potatoes. Ireland promotes meat and Germany’s CMA promotes cheese. Portugal promotes wine and processed foods. Forest products are promoted by Canada and the Scandinavian countries. Fish are also promoted by Denmark, Iceland, Norway, Sweden, the Faeroes Islands and the Falkland Islands.
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