RE:Check it outWhiskeytime wrote: https://www.mapleridgenews.com/news/canadian-ambassador-to-south-korea-tours-pitt-meadows-company/
Last week the
Ambassador of Canada to the Republic of Korea, Eric Walsh visited/toured the NSP Pitt Meadows facility. (See part of Maple Ridge/Pitt Meadows write up below).
Eric Walsh has been posted in Seoul since February, 2015 but has been a career diplomat for approximately 20 years. Shortly after moving to Seoul and taking up his new post Ambassador Walsh stated
“My No. 1 goal is to get value out of the Canada-Korea free trade agreement…...”.
You can be sure he was pretty happy about the huge hemp seed sales increases to South Korea and NSP’s involvement in that growth.
IMO it’s great that NSP management is on a “first name” basis with Ambassador Walsh while I am sure a couple of the haters here will say so what he is just another bureaucrat. There are lots of
not so obvious benefits to this relationship.
1. Contacts – other diplomats/government departments - Ambassador Walsh with 20 years diplomatic experience will have a great number of diplomatic and bureaucratic connections. NSP has stated their intention to grow internationally by expanding to other countries (Germany, Japan, Australia …) and Ambassador Walsh will be/?has been? a great resource to draw on.
2. Contacts – specifically in South Korea –
one example of many ….
CEO Sanghyun Kim ….
HomePlus - owns and operates hypermarkets and direct management home plus express shops that sell food and non-food products in South Korea. It operates a chain of
106 hypermarkets and 492 direct management home plus express shops. ***
I highlighted a couple points in the article worth noting:
1. NSP has indicated that they are looking for additional partner(s) in South Korea to expand the distribution of NSP product lines into Korean stores. The Prosnack acquisition definitely adds to the selection of products offered.
2. The Prosnack operations will be moved from North Vancouver into the Pitt Meadows business park. I suspect this will happen in less than 6 months and we will see
additional cost reductions because of the move.
3. NSP continues to work on gaining Organic certification
4. Ambassador Walsh’s comments about Canada’s reputation bodes well for the introduction of Prosnack’s product line to South Korea
*****
“
Living in the sunshine”
Always DYODD
DKM
Canadian ambassador to South Korea tours Pitt Meadows company – November 1, 2017
https://1wn3pg4fh5uh2dktoa28c8c9-wpengine.netdna-ssl.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/9090868_web1_171031-MRN-M-Naturally-Splendid-1c.jpg From left, corporate communications with Naturally Splendid Brent Rusin, Prosnack Natural Foods president Alan V. Maddox, senior industry development officer with Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada Elisa Au, Canadian Ambassador to South Korea Eric Walsh, Naturally Splendid CEO Dave Eto, Pitt Meadows city councillor Mike Stark and president of Naturally Splendid J. Craig Goodwin, on a tour of the facility in the Golden Ears Business Park. (Colleen Flanagan/THE NEWS)
Last year, a company called Naturally Splendid shipped $6.3 million worth of hemp seed to South Korea.
Now, the Pitt Meadows company wants to ride that initial wave by exporting more value-added hemp products in 2018.
“We saw a large consumer base that was demanding hemp in 2016. What we’d like to do now is access that hemp demand with new value-added products,” company president J. Craig Goodwin said last week in a meeting with Canadian ambassador Eric Walsh in Pitt Meadows.
Touting hemp seed as a renewable and sustainable source of Omega 3, Naturally Splendid says demand for the product will grow, along with the demand for cannabidiol or CBD, a natural non-psychoactive concentrate extracted from hemp that industry claims contains vitamins with natural therapeutic benefits.
Walsh, ambassador to South Korea, cautioned though that the market is unpredictable. He advised them to try to, “catch the wave at the right time.”
“That’s the problem in the Korean market, is that it’s really dynamic and it’s really like – everybody’s got to have this now,” said Walsh.
Naturally Splendid is hoping to be able to partner with a Western company that is more established in the Korean market to get their lines of hemp foods, sports nutrition, skin care and pet care products on to store shelves. The company has a 3,300 sq. foot packaging facility located in the Golden Ears Business Park.
Naturally Splendid acquired Prosnack Natural Foods in North Vancouver and is planning to move that facility into the Pitt Meadows business park. They also have a bioprocessing facility in Saskatoon, Sask., where they do their extraction formulation of oils and cbd’s.
They have been in business for eight years and a public company for five years and
are now working towards their organic certification. Ultimately the ambassador’s message was positive saying that Canada is renowned for their high quality products in South Korea. “Whether it’s the fresh water, whether it’s the clean air, everything that goes into the image of
Canada, goes into their health food and therefore
will always have an advantage over even American brands, or certainly Chinese brands that might be selling similar products,” said Walsh.