Continued Export Success for Illinois Supplier

In 2015, Capitol Wholesale Meats/Fontanini located in McCook, IL, attended Food Export’s Caribbean and Central American Buyers Mission. At the mission Fontanini met with buyers from Guatemala and Panama, and through his meetings connected with a Costa Rican Distributor.

Through this relationship, they were able to make a first-time sale to Costa Rica.  They have made sales around $25,000 so far, and Gerry Fredella, International Sales Development Manager for Fontanini hopes “there are many more opportunities to come”. He projects around $100,000 in sales for 2016.

Fotanini has been a part of Food Export Midwest’s Branded Program for the past two years. They have used the program for 50% reimbursement on many domestic shows such as the NASFT Summer Fancy Food Show and Private Label Trade Show, as well as International trade shows such as Anuga in Germany. “We’re really enjoying working with the Branded Program because of all the additional exposure we’re gaining”, says Gerry.

Fontanini is a producer of a variety of meats products including sausages, meatballs, beef, bratwurst and roasts and snack products for the food service and retail segments. Founded in 1960, the family-owned company runs today in an 188,000 square foot state-of-the-art plant.

Food Export uses funding from the Market Access Program (MAP) to help America’s small businesses increase their exports of food and agricultural products; as these exports increase, these small businesses are creating jobs and improving the strength and stability of our agricultural economy. Food Export-Midwest and Food Export-Northeast are non-profit organizations that work in collaboration with their member state departments of agriculture and the USDA’s Foreign Agricultural Service. They offer a wide range of programs and services that help boost America’s agricultural exports.