Regional Institute of Wine and Oil

Internationalization, the reflections of Michele Shah

11 January 2013 – Castello Utveggio – presentation of the Internationalization Program

First of all, I would like to thank the producers who participated in the meeting on January 11th at Castello Utveggio in Palermo. I hope the meeting served to clarify some questions.

In reality, during the meeting, I would have liked to present my 2013 internationalization program orally to discuss some points in particular. Just as I had prepared some clarifications on the 2012 events programme. Unfortunately, the time dedicated to the numerous questions did not give me the opportunity. The points I wanted to clarify about 2012 are the following: the 2012 programming saw a reduction in the budget which was cut by 38 percent. All this while the planning was already underway. A reduction which, as you well understand, created difficulties that were largely overcome thanks to the will and awareness of the important developments that this type of action brings forward. IRVOS and Michèle Shah SRL have in fact continued the program. Michele Shah SRL was the first to believe in this project and understood and contributed with various interventions to overcome the difficulties encountered. First of all by selecting foreign PR by negotiating and creating a suitable program; collaborating on the program with IRVOS; creating a budget in accordance with the IRVOS and the availability of financial flows; ensuring the maintenance of contract agreements with foreign PRs; following communication abroad; creating Sicily's image and brand abroad.

I would also like to add some reflections on the criticisms posed by producers, such as that of greater information in B2Bs. I agree that especially for Incoming B2Bs, producers need to fill out a form with the description of their production accompanied by the export prices for each product. In this way the importer is informed in advance of the production range of the company in front of him. The problem with this “information transparency” is that not all manufacturers want to give this type of information. However, we will still have the importers who will participate in the Incoming B2Bs fill out a form (and we already do it and have done it for the B2Bs in Sicily), where they declare what they are interested in in terms of products and also price ranges. Another point, more information for the foreign market from producers for foreign events. I agree that it is very important to give as much information as possible to importers and the foreign sector when sending out the invitation to participate. Already in the next events where we list the list of companies, next to each company we will put the site link so the importer can already go directly to carry out his own investigation on the companies before the event. We are already preparing a more informative catalog for the Norway event, but obviously we cannot dedicate more than one page to each company, and this normally includes a brief description of the company (very brief), some data on the four wines it is showcasing (we limit the display to four labels per company), one of these wines is always the wine for the seminar – highlighted. What we can add is the export price of wine (ex-cellar) for companies that wish to display this data. In this case, if the importer is looking for a wine in a certain price range, he can already know when he takes the catalog which companies to turn his attention to. Each company in its description can dedicate this space to publish its medals won and scores received for the wines it exhibits instead of giving a description of the company, this depends on you and the space available. The forms that you fill out for publication in the catalog are very important and for my part I ask you to be very punctual in sending them back to me correctly filled out. Despite clear guidelines, I find myself spending several hours correcting English, editing company descriptions that are more poetic than useful, or too long. I further ask you to always add the DOC or IGT Sicilia denomination after the name of the wine (for each wine). On seminars during foreign events. The seminars usually serve to describe the potential of the territories, types of wine and indigenous vines produced. Having encountered problems during some events in 2012 for the selection of these wines put into the seminar, with the accusation of favoring some companies rather than others, it was decided that for 2013 each producer will have the opportunity to select their own wine for the seminar and that each producer will have his own wine presented in the seminar. This obviously involves holding two or three seminars and consequently increases the cost of the event for seminar compensation, venue rental and waiter service for each seminar. Another point, greater communication on events and newsletters. As regards my communication work on events and Sicily through advertising and advertorials, I find it to be of great importance, and some actions and projects were carried forward until the moment in which we suffered the budget cut. Unfortunately funds for advertorials and advertising are not included in the OCM funds and at this moment we have no budget for this with the IRVOS. I am sure that when we have the budget available for this, we will resume international communication activity. We had time (before the cuts) to commit to publishing a supplement for the Norwegian market and the Russian market in 2012 which I attach. In addition to advertising on the UK market for the London event, on the Brazil market for the Brazilian event, on the Hong Kong market for the Hong Kong event and for 2013 we published articles and advertisements on Delwine (the most important site for the sector Indian) about the event we are going to do now in January 2013. We are also trying to advertise on the Swedish market for the event in Stockholm (budget permitting). The supplement Norway also covers the February 2013 event in the Norwegian market, so we are not without communication projects and we hope to increase them, funds permitting. I am also available, in the absence of institutional funds, to organize advertorials and advertising by acting as coordinator if producers are interested in an event and if they wish to carry it forward at their own expense. Knowing where to place advertising and negotiating this are important aspects that I can take care of. You have my full support to execute this. However, I would like to bring to your attention that in the Incoming in Sicily invitations one of the reasons why we also invite the foreign press, focusing on the markets where we operate in the internationalization program, is that in this way articles are published on Sicily, on the territory, on the wines, on the producers , about local gastronomy, olive oil and culture. All of this is essential to assist in the Brand Building we are doing. In 2012 we concluded the first year of Brand Building, a very important step that forms the "hard core" of the coming years. With the growing trust of Sicilian producers who understand the importance of abroad and with the recent appointment of a very important Brand Ambassador such as Knight Diego Planeta, in addition to the support of IRVOS and the dynamic guidance of the Regional Councilor for Agricultural Resources and Alimentari Dario Cartabellotta, I'm sure we'll go swimmingly! Thank you all and I am always available to receive – by email – your requests, criticisms and suggestions,

Michael Shah