U.S. Department of Commerce, Division of Commercial Services’ Pacific Islands Hawaii Export Assistance Center director John Holman told Variety, “In Hawaii, and perhaps Guam, the products that are successful often target high-end niche markets where people have higher disposable income.”
During his presentation on exporting yesterday at the American Memorial Park, Holman cited premium-grade coffee from Hawaii, although faced with steep shipping costs, can still manage to sell in high-end markets.
“They are willing to pay more for premium products such as in Japan, Singapore or in Hong Kong where they value quality,” he said.
Assessing the CNMI’s exporting potential, Holman said the initial challenges would be internal — “how do companies scale up their production, their expertise, their financial capabilities to travel to a market and to engage with partners.”
He added that there is a learning curve too that startup exporting companies need to deal with. “Even if they have a good product, it takes a little bit of time to negotiate what kind of contracts you want to set up with your partners.”
Holman said companies can still overcome these challenges.
Once the companies have dealt with these internal challenges and are up to speed, they can go out and target those markets.
He also pointed out that there’s a huge opportunity for services.
He encouraged companies to explore resources available to them. By learning about the resources, the companies would be able to figure out the good opportunity for their business.
For Holman, education and edu-tourism, “I think is a huge potential.”
He said, “We see a lot of students, particularly in Asian markets, that have the income and they want to get a quality education.”
He said these students would like to get their foot in the door to improve their English language skills and then maybe stay around for an advance degree or specific job training.
He also said there’s a potential to exporting processed agricultural products like Tinian pepper.
“I think food products may have some good potential,” said Holman.
Those looking to venture into this business should look into consumer preferences in countries that like spicy food.
“You may want to look at the competitive landscape and see the spicy peppers on the market, how would this one fit in and how you position it to be attractive,” he said.
He also said the Tinian peppers have the obvious benefit of coming from Tinian — coming from a unique place.
“It’s a unique product where it comes from. Hopefully it has a unique flavor as well. I think you can position it so it can be competitive,” he added.
For those companies looking at exploring the export market, resources are available at www.export.gov or they can check with the Small Business Development Center on Capital Hill at the Department of Commerce Building.
