Before you enter any foreign market, it is important to identify the opportunities and constraints in those markets as well as understand who the prospective buyers and sellers are. Market research encompasses all methods that your company may use to determine which foreign markets have the best potential for your products.
If you are exporting pine nuts, for example, you may study the market trends and outlook for a similar product in that particular country. Similarly, if you are exporting to countries in the Indian subcontinent or Europe you need to study those countries with all their relevant trade policies and specific market information. Afghan traders may have limited access to price information on dried fruit, nuts, and medicinal plants at large wholesale markets in regional countries (for example, the large wholesale markets in Delhi, Dubai, and Istanbul). With up-to date, accurate price information, Afghan traders and farmers could better identify the time and the place to export to maximize profit.
To penetrate international markets, you need to know what the right market is for you where you can have a competitive advantage over others based on the quality of your product, its cost, and socio-cultural forces. Also, find out the regulatory barriers and study them well before you enter the market. An excellent source for primary information can be the various Afghan commercial attachés and commercial counselors located in sixteen countries, as well as the Afghan Chamber of Commerce & Investment (ACCI), the Export Promotion Directorate at the Ministry of Industry & Commerce (MoIC), and the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC). You may also do online research to find more about your desired markets.
Sometimes you may get an unsolicited order without any research or outreach from your end. For example, after attending trade fair in a foreign country, you may get orders. Although this type of selling is valuable, the company may discover even more promising markets by conducting a systematic search directly (through your own staff) or indirectly (through export agents).
In this chapter, you will go through a step-by-step approach that will help you identify the most desirable markets based on certain criteria, estimate your profitability, assess the competition barriers, and understand the regulatory barriers of the markets. Before you commit yourself and your company to the complexities and costs inherent in exporting, it is absolutely essential that you undertake some degree of research to better understand the foreign markets that you will be competing in and the consumers to whom you will be selling. This chapter will help you understand all these dynamics