Tomas Gallego, Madrid Office, Bord Bia – Irish Food Board

Amazon, in collaboration with ICEX – Spanish Institute for Foreign Trade, has launched “Foods & Wine from Spain” to customers on Amazon.es (Spain), Amazon.de (Germany) and Amazon.co.uk (United Kingdom).

Initially, this online store features over 170 companies, including a wide range of product such as olive oil, saffron, Serrano and Ibérico ham, charcuterie, canned vegetables, fish, meat, ready-made meals, wines and other alcoholic beverages from well-known Spanish brands.

According to ICEX and Amazon, “Spanish SMEs that sell their products on Amazon Marketplace doubled their exports in 2016, obtaining more than 200 million euros on international sales”.

Those companies have access to Amazon’s global logistic network, which enables them to offer quick delivery to Amazon Prime members in different countries all around the world.

Other Spanish regions and organizations are working in this sense by promoting international e-commerce through partnership with international couriers like DHL or DPD. As we mentioned in our previous Food Alert, “Time for Ecommerce in Spain", Ecommerce is getting more relevant in Spain and main grocery retailers are investing in this channel.

But it is even more relevant in other countries like UK or Japan where the ecommerce for food and drinks have reached a market share of around 7% in 2016 (according to Kantar World Panel). Even when that percentage is still lower in other countries it is growing at double-digit rates every year. Furthermore, for many small and medium enterprises, this channel could be the best way to sell abroad with a relatively small investment.

So Amazon, which is already implemented all over the world, and Alibaba, which is the leader in the online B2B market, together with other online pure players have opened new sales opportunities for those companies or groups of companies that want to go international.

For more info please contact tomas.gallego@bordbia.ie