January 5, 2015 — Maine Wild Blueberry Crisp and Ripe Mango Sorbetto have been longstanding favorites at the Gelato Fiasco store in Brunswick, where the gelato maker has been serving its frozen treats for seven years.
Josh Davis, co-founder and CEO of Gelato Fiasco, traveled in June to the Chinese cities of Shanghai and Ningbo to meet with companies eager to buy his product, made with milk from Maine dairy farms. Now he’s filing the paperwork to export his gelato to Hong Kong, mainland China and South Korea.
“Even people not familiar with every detail of Maine get a good feeling about food products that come from Maine,” he said.
That observation is apparently widespread as seafood and agricultural commodities are driving much of the growth of Maine’s exports. International sales of Maine food products more than doubled between 2007 and 2013, according to federal trade data.
The rise in food exports coincides with the growth of domestic sales in those categories and the rise of the middle class in emerging markets, particularly China, where more people can now afford premium food products from the United States. According to data collected from trade forms that companies fill out for the U.S. Commerce Department, total exports in seafood, agricultural commodities and prepared food products increased from $276 million in 2007, the last year before the Great Recession, to $557 million in 2013.
Canada, by far Maine’s largest trade partner, is the leading importer of those products. In 2013, Canada imported about $300 million worth of Maine food and agriculture products, some of which – lobster and potatoes – were processed and exported back to buyers in the United States.
Read the full story from the Portland Press Herald