The meetings were coordinated by the British Consulate-General Chicago and N8 AgriFood, with the University of Leeds and the Department for International Trade.
The aim was to highlight America’s Cultivation Corridor and the Cultivo programme being offered in conjunction with this corridor – a 10-day immersive programme to connect start-ups and SMEs with a US investor ecosystem, university research expertise, an accelerator programme, and a US market-entry educational programme.
The scheme is targeting those innovative businesses who are looking at US entry, ideally within the next three to five years. The Cultivo programme is backed by some major US agri-businesses, including Deere & Co, Corteva and Kent Corporation. It has two focus areas of particular relevance to crop health and protection: ‘predictive agriculture’ and ‘biobased chemicals’.
Legal company Walker Morris also overviewed the five principal routes to market for UK businesses looking to begin selling products into the US:
1) direct sales
2) agents & distributors
3) licensing & franchising
4) local offices and
5) joint ventures
In addition, some of the common legal considerations were outlined, such as export licensing, product liability laws and contracting mechanisms. All-in-all, it was a useful series of meetings for understanding entry into the US market and engaging with a global opportunity for innovative SMEs – Cultivo – that will run two times per year.
CHAP will continue to engage with the programme and support UK SMEs in applications for the October 2020 Cultivo Programme.
If you have any questions about working with CHAP, please send us an email using the enquiries form at the bottom of our homepage.
