Newly Opened Trade Office of the Philippine Consulate General in Toronto Finds the Right Partner in TFO Canada

pic1“The services that TFO Canada provides are very unique. I have travelled to many countries and have never seen that type of service offered. TFO Canada has a specific facility to enable other countries to export products to Canada. This enhances the trade relationship between Canada and other countries. TFO Canada provides trade consultants to work with the exporters. I appreciate the information about markets and the connections to buyers that the organization provides,” says Maria Roseni Alvero in a phone interview.

There is a concept called Jobs to be Done. The premise behind the concept is that a client has a job that it wants done, and he will hire a supplier to do this job. When you apply the Jobs to be Done Framework in everyday language, an organization should offer a service that prospective clients want. In this situation of jobs to be done, TFO Canada provides the tools, resources and information that importers and exporters need to do business together. TFO Canada matches exporters to importers, and they do it better than their competitors.

Although there are many trade organizations around, many of TFO Canada’s clients have said the service it offers is unique since it helps both buyers and sellers. The organization does the job it was created to do and its clients give their seal of approval.

Maria Roseni Alvero is a Senior Trade Commissioner at the newly opened Trade Office of the Philippine Consulate General in Toronto. In her many international trade roles over the years, she promoted exports from the Philippine to other countries. Today, she promotes trade between her native country and Canada. In the interview, Alvero mentioned three services that TFO Canada provides that enables her to effectively perform her role as a trade representative:

  1. Information sessions.
  2. List of buyers for specific products.
  3. Market studies on specific sectors.

She acknowledged that the assistance of TFO Canada makes them more effective because the information would be harder for them to find for their exporters. “TFO Canada is responsive to the queries from exporters in the Philippines, and they allow Small Medium Enterprises (SMEs) to have broader coverage for their products.” Also, she pointed out that the trade shows that TFO Canada organizes are very important to exporters because they get critical information to help them succeed. It is also known that international trade helps to create jobs and promotes economic self-sufficiency.

Alvero likes the programs that TFO Canada provides and her organization particularly likes the focused assistance that the Responsive Trade Development Facility (RTDF) delivers, which is more sustainable and makes the program easier to monitor. TFO Canada provides help directly to specific exporters. She was able to access the Fashion and Accessories MIP from TFO Canada online services, and added, “The exporters were very thankful to get the information, and in fact, it was much more than they expected… In the upcoming months, we will check in with them to find out how the information benefited them. It is a work in progress.”

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