Oregon Dairy Mission to Singapore - #5

​We had quite a bit of rain on our final day in Singapore on Friday. But a tropical rainstorm in the tropics is no surprise and the extra rain only added a few minutes to our travel time to and from the trade show. The visitor crowd did seem a bit smaller, especially in the morning, but more or less stayed that way throughout the day. Once again, the traffic through our booth held up very well and we had very little of either our cheese or ice cream samples left at the end of the day.
 
Many good meetings were held during the day and we had a repeat visit from Mrs. Lee, the very enthusiastic customer who came by yesterday and called her store manager from our booth. Continued contact with Mrs. Lee and her preferred market are planned to continue in the future and a visit to her local store took place this afternoon. Many other ideas regarding a new market plan and other projects were discussed.
 
Once again our group split up in order to begin our various departures back to the US. Others of us, plus a former colleague, now with Lamb Weston, and her new manager, who are also here for the FHA show, came along with us for our tour to Lamb Weston.
 
Of all the reactions people have to seeing new things here in Asia, I think the best one is the reaction that people have when they see the panorama of the Port of Singapore from the Port’s viewing platform at the top of their Headquarters: container cranes as far as you can see, numerous ships of various types at anchor in the harbor, and the obvious level of frantic activity going on where ever one looks. In addition, because very few people are familiar with the work and activity that go on inside a large international seaport, the wonder in the eyes of first-time visitors when they are driven ‘inside the gate’ of the world’s second busiest container port is a great sight! Of the members of our small group of visitors to the Port of Singapore today, four of us were first-time visitors and the looks of wonder once again were visible on their faces. 
 
The Port visit marked the end of our Singapore trade mission trip. We all split up for dinner, some of us heading to the airport, others leaving early Saturday morning and during the day. It’s been a great trip, lots of activity and new colleagues met and the beginning of a new phase of our product development work here in SE Asia. We’re not quite there yet, but market entry is getting very close and I look forward to one day being able to announce the first shipments of cheese or ice cream to the area.

​We had quite a bit of rain on our final day in Singapore on Friday. But a tropical rainstorm in the tropics is no surprise and the extra rain only added a few minutes to our travel time to and from the trade show. The visitor crowd did seem a bit smaller, especially in the morning, but more or less stayed that way throughout the day. Once again, the traffic through our booth held up very well and we had very little of either our cheese or ice cream samples left at the end of the day.
 
Many good meetings were held during the day and we had a repeat visit from Mrs. Lee, the very enthusiastic customer who came by yesterday and called her store manager from our booth. Continued contact with Mrs. Lee and her preferred market are planned to continue in the future and a visit to her local store took place this afternoon. Many other ideas regarding a new market plan and other projects were discussed.
 
Once again our group split up in order to begin our various departures back to the US. Others of us, plus a former colleague, now with Lamb Weston, and her new manager, who are also here for the FHA show, came along with us for our tour to Lamb Weston.
 
Of all the reactions people have to seeing new things here in Asia, I think the best one is the reaction that people have when they see the panorama of the Port of Singapore from the Port’s viewing platform at the top of their Headquarters: container cranes as far as you can see, numerous ships of various types at anchor in the harbor, and the obvious level of frantic activity going on where ever one looks. In addition, because very few people are familiar with the work and activity that go on inside a large international seaport, the wonder in the eyes of first-time visitors when they are driven ‘inside the gate’ of the world’s second busiest container port is a great sight! Of the members of our small group of visitors to the Port of Singapore today, four of us were first-time visitors and the looks of wonder once again were visible on their faces. 
 
The Port visit marked the end of our Singapore trade mission trip. We all split up for dinner, some of us heading to the airport, others leaving early Saturday morning and during the day. It’s been a great trip, lots of activity and new colleagues met and the beginning of a new phase of our product development work here in SE Asia. We’re not quite there yet, but market entry is getting very close and I look forward to one day being able to announce the first shipments of cheese or ice cream to the area.

Author

​Barry Horowitz, former-Chair of the Export Council of Oregon, has taught and written on International Supply Chain Management, Logistics, Transportation and Trade topics for more than 30 years. He is currently working with the Port of Portland and other Oregon traded sector agencies to develop international trade strategies and programs.