WA Best Kept Secret
We are incredibly proud to say that Wheel Line Cider is crossing the Pacific to Korea! What is not as well known to our regulars and readers, is that our WLC Owner Susie Jensen has recently traveled to Asia and been in continual conversation with the Korean Rep, to see if their beautiful country would want our cider on their shelves. While the core of our brand is rooted in our PNW community, the opportunity to export our crafted, dry ciders internationally is incredibly exciting, and none of it would be possible without the help of Washington state’s best kept secret– a collaboration between the Washington State Department of Agriculture (WSDA), the Washington Small Business Development Center (SBDC), and the Western United States Agricultural Trade Association (WUSATA)!
GOING GLOBAL
Did you know that about 90% of Washington’s food and agricultural exports are small businesses?
You may be wondering how the goal of our small business going global began, and how it came to fruition. As a small business in a rural area, it can feel like the horizon only stretches so far, but we know anything is possible when you believe in your product AND utilize the provided resources around you! We would love to (very) briefly share with you our amazing experience with the above organizations and to encourage anyone to take advantage of the free resources available to food and agricultural businesses in WA.
Let’s throw it back to 2019 – Susie was working diligently with her local SBDC advisor to better build WLC’s brand awareness. While working with the SBDC, Susie was encouraged to apply for a new award that year– The Seattle District Office Rural Small Business of the Year award by the US Small Business Administration. And guess what? Wheel Line Cider won!
We were the first honored recipients of this award, and that fact prompted Julie Johnson, an Export Development and Outreach Specialist for the WSDA, to reach out and congratulate Susie. During this introduction,
Julie asked a life changing question– Have you ever considered export? And thus, our international export journey began!
Julie connected Susie to Allan Peterson of the SBDC, who offered some guidance and international marketing advice, and then provided an introduction to WUSATA. Through WUSATA and WSDA, Susie had access to a variety of classes and their extensive database. Susie partook in every educational zoom meeting there was on export, learning a whole new vocabulary and broadening her awareness of WLC’s growth potential. She discovered that WLC had a promising market in Asia– specifically Taiwan, Japan and South Korea! For example, Northwest cherries happen to be the fifth top ag export to Korea, one of the many factors that helped match our Cherry Blush cider to a South Korean market! After looking at the numbers, WUSATA helped set up several International Virtual Trade Missions for WLC– essentially B2B meetings with importers in multiple countries, including Canada, Mexico, and many in Asia. These meetings basically felt like speed dating for businesses!
Everyone involved got to quickly make introductions and discuss a potential import/export relationship.
Through these virtual meetings, Susie met Danny Kim, WSDA’s Representative of the South Korean office, and Mr. Lim of ATL. Mr. Lim actually introduced craft beer to Korea, and was entertaining the thought of bringing craft cider into the country as well. Though the greeting was brief, it went incredibly well and Susie knew she wanted to work with Mr. Lim. She even hand wrote a personal letter stating her pleasure in meeting him and her hope to one day work with him, (it’s the personal touches that mean the most!) This was the start to an ever-growing professional relationship that would soon turn into a partnership!
KOREAN HOLIDAY
Susie and Mr. Lim stayed connected over the next couple years, (with the help of Danny!) and during that time, Susie remained diligent– she continued to work with the SBDC and WSDA to strengthen her international relationships and marketing. We even had the pleasure of hosting and meeting Danny Kim in person, along with WSDA’s other worldly reps, at our tasting grounds, in summer 2022! We showed the reps our orchard and operations and ended the evening with our first cider-paired, chef-prepared dinner!
Remember when we shared a snippet from Susie’s recent trip to Japan, where she had her cute display and pink WLC cart? Julie Johnson told Susie about a grant opportunity that would help take her and her cider overseas to Asia, to participate in a Food Expo. Susie jumped at this opportunity to not only introduce WLC to more markets, but to also make the hop, skip, and jump up to South Korea to meet up with Mr. Lim in person, cementing an export deal between them! During the final steps, Allen from the SBDC navigated Susie through all the necessary paperwork and made sure every “T” was crossed.
BUSINESS IS BLOOMING
Our first successfully wrapped shipment of WLC Orchard, 184 Bearings, and Cherry Blush ciders is set to leave for Korea this September, all thanks to our hardworking cider-making team and the incredible advisors and opportunities from the WSDA and SBDC.
“I truly owe my success in breaking into the export market to Julie Johnson, Liz Jamieson, Allan Peterson and Danny Kim, without them holding my hand and encouragement through this whole process I wouldn’t be happy to announce my first export shipment. It is a wonderful opportunity for small businesses who don’t think they have what it takes, to build confidence and go after opportunities that otherwise seem unreachable!”
-Susie Jensen
After such a successful experience through these state programs, WLC will continue to participate in outbound trade missions through WUSATA and will continue to build more cherished business relationships. We want to spread the word to all rural WA businesses and shed light on these free resources! WSDA connections, programs, and data are available to ALL. Expand your horizons!
Keep following along with our content to stay updated on all good things happening at Wheel Line!
Important Players:
Julie Johnson
Export Development and outreach specialist
Washington State Department of Agriculture
International Marketing Program
JJohnson@agr.wa.gov
Allan Peterson
Certified Business Advisor
International Trade Advisor
Washington Small Business Development Center
Grant County Economic Development Council
allan.peterson@wsbdc.org
Liz Jamieson
Certified Business Advisor, Certified Global Business Professional
SBDC
Washington Small Business Development Center
liz.jamieson@wsbdc.org