Helping with exports for local companies by participating in 2016 Dubai Agricultural Expo
Signed export contracts for 86,000 dollars
279 consultations with buyers, hoping for additional export contracts
[March 31, 2016]
<GTEP team students participated in the Dubai Agricultural Expo to provide consulting on exports with buyers>
YU students are helping local companies to increase exports to the Middle East.
In the recently held '2016 Dubai Agricultural Expo (AgraME2016)', 20 students with the YU Global Trade Experts Incubating Program team (hereinafter 'GTEP team') contributed significantly to help local small and medium companies sign export contracts for the Middle Eastern market. AgraME is the largest agricultural expo in the Middle East joined by over 5,000 buyers every year and YU students stood in the frontline to make known the name of local companies and help open the door to exports.
The YU students held 279 buyer consultation sessions in Dubai with 10 excellent agricultural material companies such as Byongjue Agricultural (CEO Cho Nam-sun), Bu Kwang Sa (CEO Lee Sang-hee), Green Agrotech (CEO Park Man-woong), and Yukil FGC. The amount of the consultations reached 2 million dollars.
In particular, with the help of YU students, Bu Kwang Sa, a shade net manufacturing company, signed contracts worth a total of 70,000 dollars with Al Qarn, a company in Oman, and Al AinGarden of the UAE. Byongjue Agricultural, which specializes in producing horticultural binding machines, signed a contract for exports with 15,000 dollars on the spot with Al Qbaidi, a company located in Budabi.
After signing an export contract in Dubai, Bu Kwang Sa Director Lee Yong-ho said, "The buyer consultations by the YU students played a decisive role in signing export contracts," and added, "I was surprised to see the students have practical knowledge and foreign language skills equivalent to that of other professionals. I hope that we can continuously work with YU for more exports to other foreign countries."
Green Agrotech, which possesses technologies on pest traps, signed a technological partnership agreement for the development of palm pest trap pheromone with Al Atta of Dubai, while Dain Industries held in-depth discussions on plans to utilize landscape trees of fruit tree trap materials with UAE buyers to raise the possibility for exports in the future, thereby posting both tangible and intangible results to establish a foothold for local companies to export to the Middle East. They are planning to help the companies in the future for continuous talks with buyers that they talked with at the event, and therefore, it is expected that additional export contracts will follow.
Lee Seok-young (24, School of International Economics and Business, senior) who took part at AgraME while serving as an agent of the 10th YU GTEP team said, "It was a great opportunity to learn practical knowledge that is not taught at school by cooperating with corporate professionals," and added, "Based on the theories that I learned from the project team, I wanted to see what I could do in the real field, and I am very pleased that we were able to actually sign contracts."
The global trade capacities of the YU GTEP team are already well know. They contributed in signing a whopping 750,000 dollar export deal by helping a local company that specialized in roofing materials. Being recognized for such capacities, YU was selected last year for the 'Regional Specialized Youth Trade Export Incubating Program' sponsored by the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy, and the Korea International Trade Association. In particular, YU is the only one of the 24 universities selected for the project nationwide for specialization in the Middle East. The YU GTEP team fostered trade experts armed with language and trade knowledge for the Middle East and was expected to play a big role in helping companies in the Daegu and Gyeongbuk region to enter foreign markets. It has made visible outcomes in not even a year since pursuing the project.
Meanwhile, YU has continuously been pursuing youth trade expert incubation programs fro 2001 with the support of the government. Since starting the Ministry of Industry and Energy TI (Trade Incubator) project in September of 2001, it has been carrying out youth trade expert incubation projects for the 16th straight year.
