Seminars to Explore Foreign-Trade Markets

Ventura County business owners, particularly those in the high-tech, consumer-goods and food industries, need to take a serious look at the potential of foreign markets, said Lowell Hattori, coordinator of a seminar that will focus on trade opportunities in Taiwan.

The program, to be held at the Spanish Hills Country Club in Camarillo on Thursday, is one of a series on Pacific Rim exporting opportunities sponsored by the World Affairs Council of Ventura County and the Wells Fargo HSBC Trade Bank. The program is one of two major export seminars in Ventura County on Thursday.

“Taiwan is a fast-rising economy, with Chinese entrepreneurs looking for export-import opportunities,” said Hattori, an Agoura-based business consultant. “I just want people to see what opportunities might exist.”

“Ventura County is a beautiful area,” he said. “Taiwanese people may be looking for investment opportunities when they come [to Southern California]. Most look at the South Bay or Orange County. We need to have them look at Ventura County and what Ventura County business has to offer.”

Hattori’s panel of speakers will include Jui Hsiung Ouyang, director general of the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office; attorney Anthony Ching, who will discuss legal issues affecting those doing business in Taiwan; Jonathan Pollock of the Rand Corp.’s Center for Asia-Pacific Policy, and Tom Ellsworth, vice president of marketing for Camarillo-based California Amplifier, a manufacturer of wireless cable television components.

“Ventura County business cannot afford to overlook Asia, because there is a huge consumer base over there and a chance for a lot of advancement,” said Ellsworth, whose company has an office in Bangkok. “That doesn’t mean sending an American out there to go and learn how to do business. It’s far more effective to seek local representatives there who understand the market and the customs of business.”

In a separate seminar, this one aimed at the agriculture industry, Ventura’s Export Small Business Development Center and the Oxnard College Center for International Trade Development will present a “Food and Agricultural Export Seminar: Selling Your Goods to the World’s SUPER-Markets.”

Heather Wicka, program manager of the export center, said the seminar at the Mandalay Beach Resort in Oxnard will concentrate on the areas of vegetable and fruit production and on gourmet and processed food products such as salsas and mixed, prewashed lettuce.

“Obviously, agriculture fluctuates, but when people have established export channels it gives them much more room and opportunity for growth,” Wicka said.

“Typically, export sales are larger in volume [than domestic]. They help a company establish growth in a market share.”

Speakers will include Audry Talley, director of the California Food and Agriculture Department, and agricultural trade officer Bonnie Borris.

The lunch-seminar will run from 8:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. Cost is $75 per person. Call 644-6191.

The World Affairs Council-Wells Fargo breakfast meeting will run from 7:30 to 10 a.m. Cost is $18 per person. Call 449-9953.