The State of Delaware and Pennsylvania are partnering to organize a joint business trip to Australia (with an optional add on to New Zealand) this spring. Delaware's trade representative in Australia, Angela Foley, will perform in-country research and outreach for participating companies. Her team in Australia will set up face-to-face meetings with prospective customers.

Australia has a robust global economy with a long-lasting trade relationship with the U.S. supported by a Free Trade Agreement.

Export Delaware is working to provide small and medium businesses with a successful business trip.

Participation in the trip includes:

• Assistance from in-country trade representative, Angela Foley.
• Business meetings with distributors, agents, or customers arranged according to your needs.
• Preparation session, in-country briefing and follow-up support after the trip.

Export Delaware partnered with Foley's team and went on a business trip to Australia last March. Six Delaware businesses participated and took part in a number of meetings in Sydney and Melbourne. As a result of this trip, these businesses project nearly half a million dollars in new export sales.

Past participant touted the program's value.

"Foley & Associates, Delaware's rep in Australia, set up six meetings," said Naresh Batta, founder of Batta Environmental. Batta could not personally go to Australia but had teleconference calls and they actually turned out well. "We have two good prospects for potential distributorship."

"The options for distributorship in Australia/New Zealand expanded as a result of the Trade Mission," said Tom Zawislak of B&W Tek. "We anticipate securing partnerships with one and perhaps two distributors who target markets in defense and forensics where we currently do not have brand recognition or sufficient sales growth for our [products]."