GORP heads to China

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This article was published 16/02/2019 (1885 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A local entrepreneur who found national success with her energy bar recipe is looking to springboard into the international market.

By April, a few hundred Chinese consumers will be munching on an assortment of products from the Great GORP Project in Niverville.

Two pallets containing 400 boxes of energy bars, 300 bags of energy bar mix, and 400 bags of oatmeal left the GORP warehouse on Tuesday, bound for a test market comprised of gym owners and personal trainers in Beijing.

GORP founder Colleen Dyck said her first foray into international trade has been a two-year journey that’s widened her business outlook.

“It’s been an enriching experience.”

After her sister distributed product samples to a chamber of commerce in B.C., Dyck started fielding calls from a trading company interested in marketing the products overseas. They soon entered preliminary talks.

She is now the first client of Camasun Trading, which connects her Niverville production plant with importers in China.

“We are totally looking at it as a partnership,” Dyck said. “We’ve got a really good relationship based on mutual trust.”

She acknowledged the first shipment is “a bit of a risk,” as she won’t receive payment until it’s arrived at a Chinese port.

But she sees the expansion as a way to showcase the Canadian agri-food industry on the world stage.

On a 10-day trip to China last May, Dyck learned ginger and cinnamon in her recipe wouldn’t go over well in China, as consumers associated those flavours with meat seasonings, not snack foods. Hemp, another staple ingredient, is also banned as a food additive.

Back home, she formulated a new line of oatmeals tailored for the Chinese palette. The product labels remain in English. Dyck was told Chinese consumers wouldn’t believe the items were made in Canada if the label was printed in another language.

Other hurdles remained, from nutritional labelling requirements to marine insurance.

“It’s been a huge learning curve,” Dyck said.

Last month, she had to redo some work at the last minute, when Ottawa amended the Safe Food for Canadians Act.

While in China, Dyck also toured supermarkets and fitness centres, and set up a booth at SIAL, Asia’s largest international food trade show.

“I took back a lot of valuable lessons,” she said.

GORP’s China branding turns on Canada’s international reputation as a country with clean air and water, and stringent food-safety regulations.

“There’s such an appetite for Canadian food out there. They trust it,” Dyck said.

The country’s burgeoning middle class is health-conscious and wants nutritious, convenient, portable foods.

Dyck has nearly seven years of experience marketing her line of premium energy bars to Canadian consumers with a similar mindset.

The bars are sold in 2,000 stores across Canada, and sales hovered around $1 million last year.

If all goes well, Dyck said she’d like to see annual sales of $250,000 in China.

The trip was also a cultural education. Dyck learned the Chinese business community prizes frequent communication, works at a fast pace, and holds high expectations. Politeness can be interpreted as indifference.

With her first international shipment out the door, Dyck isn’t ruling out other international markets. She has been in contact with a company in Saudi Arabia, but said business opportunities there will depend on the outcome of ongoing Canadian diplomacy efforts.