Rockport, Maine - Maine exporters looking to expand even further around the globe looked no further than Rockport today. Close to 300 people gathered at the Samoset Resort for Maine International Trade Day, northern New England's largest annual internationally focused business event. In 2011 Maine exported a record $3.4 billion, a more than 9% increase from 2010. Department of Economic and Community Development Commissioner George Gervais spoke about how expanding global markets can lead to more jobs here at home. "We have approximately 2000 exporting companies in Maine and the number of companies exporting is growing," said Gervais.
One of those businesses is Falcon Performance Footwear, which participated in trade missions to Canada and South America. "Expanding our markets nationally and internationally resulted in increased demand for our product and accelerated our decision to move into a new manufacturing facility in Auburn and add four new jobs this year with hopefully more new hires in the future," said Falcon President Carl Spang.
This year's Maine International Trade Day theme was "Better by Design: Innovation for Global Markets". Featured speakers included Sandro Valeri, Senior Manager for Innovation Management at Embraer S.A., one of the largest aircraft manufacturers in the world and Dr. Cesar A. Hidalgo, Professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and faculty associate at Harvard University's Center for International Development.
Commissioner Gervais also presented four companies with international trade and investment awards. The winners include: Exporter of the Year - Hancock Lumber; Service Provider of the Year - Bernstein Shur; Innovator of the Year - Falcon Performance Footwear and Foreign Direct Investor of the Year - Molnlycke Health Care. Maine International Trade Day is sponsored by the Maine International Trade Center, Maine's go to place for international business information, assistance and up to date information on changing world markets.
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