SBIR-STTR Award

This project addresses a critical need: fast transfer of timely market information to and among sellers/marketers of high-value U.S. foods. The method to transfer this information is a Bulletin Board System (BBS). The heart of the BBS will be a collection of computer-accessed, constantly updated files of sought-after (but hard-to-get) market research/market intelligence information. The focus will be U.S. processed food product exporters who sell in these important Pacific Rim countries: Japan, China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Vietnam, Malaysia, Indonesia, Former Soviet Union, and Mexico. The information base and the BBS size, type, and configuration will be the subject of interview and analysis in Phase I. Prospective subscribers to the service are food processors, export marketing companies, wholesale distributors, food brokers, universities, and others.

U.S. Agricultural exporters need to quickly access many types of foreign market information that is generated in the export markets. Current u.S. Online export information systems present information such as u.S. Export statistics that originate in the u.S. Exporters have out-of-date information and must collect information from many sources, leaving them at a competitive disadvantage. The proposed online system is a radical departure from the present model, by systematically and comprehensively retrieving and presenting asian market-based information to u.S. High-value food exporters. A group of u.S. Food exporters will review a beta test version of the planned system to determine its usefulness for their asian export information needs.Applications:Successful testing of a prototype online information system will lead to commercial availability of the internet system. It will be a uniquely powerful knowledge tool for u.S. High-value food exporters. They will have quick information access to three major asian markets where demand for u.S. Food is very strong. This system has the potential to decrease costs of information gathering for u.S. Exporters, increase their speed of information access, and allow them to more effectively compete in the always changing, highly competitive international marketplace.