HALACO, partnership and cooperation for international business in Russia and Asia

The HALACO Producers’ Association brings together an exquisite sample of organic foods from Navarre and is an example of good practice in cooperation and collaboration to conquer foreign markets as complex as the Russian Federation and Asian markets.

Directed by Raúl Labat, it has a team specialised in markets along the Silk Road, ‘One Belt One Road’, and represents the interests of a dozen SMEs with export potential and such attractive organic products as: pacharán, D.O. Navarra wines, olive oil, salts, sausages, breads, coffees, sweets, pacharán, etc.

All of them are shown to the world in English in a Gold Supplier showcase of Alibaba.com, the world’s most important international B2B platform of the Chinese Alibaba Group. This international online B2B demand generation project is carried out by the eBusiness area of Inycom, who daily manage the demand through the platform, to qualify contacts and send the leads to HALACO’s management.

An initiative for international demand generation.

The group initiative, which has been running for several years now, has the institutional backing of the Government of Navarre, through aid for grouped exports by companies in this Community (see P.I.N., Navarre Internationalisation Plan).

Over the last few months, HALACO members have concentrated their efforts on Russia and the following Asian markets: Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and China.

Among their prospecting and sales actions, we highlight the following

  • Three commercial trips to Kazakhstan. One for prospecting, another to interview and select a distributor and the third one, in which 8 of the partners took part, to develop joint promotion and sales events with the new HORECA distributor with specialised retail (8 own shops in the 6 main cities + HORECA distribution). In this last trip they also enjoyed the inauguration of the first Spanish restaurant in the country, ‘La Rioja’, owned by this distributor, which is also the first importer of gourmet products in Kazakhstan.
  • Manager’s prospecting trip to Uzbekistan.
  • Trip of the companies to Moscow to inaugurate a joint pavilion and showroom in ‘Food City’, the largest agri-food city on the outskirts of the Russian capital.
  • Trip to 9 provinces in China by the Manager, joint exhibition in the city of Yiwu and a mission of several partners to Shanghai, the city where HALACO is going to inaugurate its first subsidiary in this large market in November, with a local partner specialising in wine and food distribution through HORECA channels, a subsidiary that will serve Asia Pacific and also Cambodia.
  • Reception in Navarre of a Russian customer who markets the Group’s products in his region (Samara).
  • Reception of a delegation of 23 Russian buyers in Navarra.
  • Reception of a distributor from Kazakhstan in Navarra.
  • Reception of Chinese distributors in Navarra.
  • Reception of HK distributors in Navarra.
  • Joint shipment of products to Kazakhstan distributor.
  • Joint shipment of products to new distributor in Yiwu province (China).
  • Joint shipment of non-alcoholic products to Russian distributor in Moscow (Russia).
  • Joint shipment of alcoholic products to Russian distributor in Samara (Russia).

Kazakhstan and China, focus countries for international business development.

In Kazakhstan, there is a spot in the desert, the dry port of Korgos, a hub for the Silk Road, which by all accounts is set to become the new Dubai. China has invested heavily in this route, and they have the support of international banks, the World Bank, etc. It will undoubtedly be the focus country in 2019.

And what about the Chinese market. According to their forecasts, the HALACO members will participate with their local partner in the ‘Food and Hotels’ Fair with excellent expectations for their wines and organic food from Navarra and will provide ‘support’ and participate in tastings and promotional events organised by several of the Association’s regional distributors in China.

This is an example of micro-SMEs conquering distant markets through cooperation.

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