Exports are becoming increasingly important for Italy’s Formec Biffi, the leading company specializing in sauces and pestos. “Over the last three years – claims the company’s Sales Manager, Stefano Bartoletti – we have been reorganizing our structure to best tackle the requests from international markets, which need profoundly different recipes, formats and formulations compared to the Italian market, like Pesto Cremoso which is bringing excellent results. More generally, however, we are trying to export typical regional recipes from the Italian culinary tradition, like our brand-new Cacio e Pepe, an extremely successful product in Italy that is also attracting the interest of foreign buyers. It is available both fresh and ambient and it’s made with Pecorino Romano PDO. Our new products also include Sugo pomodoro e basilico, made with 100% Italian tomato.”
Biffi also offers a range of sauces designed for professionals, the Basi Fresche line, developed for the Italian market and available also abroad to help restauranteurs reduce processing costs, simplify and speed up production and incorporate Italian products into their menus. Currently, exports amount to 10% of Biffi’s total revenues, but the closing of a number of agreements with leading players in the American and Asian markets is expected to significantly boost the company’s export business in 2021.
“To make our products better known on foreign markets – says Bartoletti – we carry out in-store initiatives giving consumers the chance to taste our products, understand how to use them and what to pair them with. We use social media to support product launches, as we did in 2020 for the Asian market: we made promotional videos advertising our products and published them on the main Chinese social media platforms.”