Export groups help British companies sell in Eastern Europe

In the United Kingdom there are recently several activities employed and online platforms launched aimed at boosting trade with Central and Eastern Europe. A new UK-based ecommerce site for example aims to alert local companies about business opportunities in Romania, while another initiative is focused on selling British food online in Poland.

The British Business Portal is a networking platform focusing on “offering information on various sectors of the Romanian economy, like business opportunities, events, requests for partnerships, how to do business and relevant legislation.” This initiative could become very handy for British businesses that are interested in expanding to Romania.

‘Only three hours away from the United Kingdom’
According to Raymond Breden, executive chairman at the British Romanian Chamber of Commerce, the Eastern European country has much to offer with lower costs in resources and facilities, its need to develop and its size and resources. “Compared to other emerging markets, Romania has the added advantages of being a EU member state and only three hours away from the U.K. ” There are currently more than 4,000 UK companies operating in Romania. Trade between the two countries topped 3.28 billion euros in 2013, which is a growth of 11.9% compared to the year before.

Another country that’s working together more intensively with the UK, is Poland. Heart of England Fine Foods, an organization for producers, growers and processors of specialty food and drink from several British counties, has joined forces with the UK Trade & Investment team in Warsaw and some Polish business leaders. Their goal is to boost the profile and sale of produce from the heart of England to Eastern Europe.

For this project they also launched a new ecommerce B2B website, featuring products from 41 companies across the Midlands. So far there are 41 companies which will have their products featured on the B2B website for Polish buyers, Karen Davies from HEFF tells Shropshirelive.com.

British commerce in Slovakia, Hungary, Poland, Romania, the Czech Republic and Slovenia
At the beginning of this month it became known Ian Livingston, Minister for Trade and Investment, launched two new British Business Centres in Slovakia and Hungary. Such centres opened in Poland last year and Romania this week. Business centres in the Czech Republic and Slovenia are due to open shortly. “This is a dynamic and exciting growth market. British firms have doubled trade exports to Eastern and Central European countries in the last ten years but we still lag behind our rivals”, lord Livingston says. “By 2020, I want to double exports to this region, so we are ramping up our support for British firms on the ground by opening a network of business centres across the region and increasing the number of trade missions to introduce more British businesses to potential buyers.”