The Italian Job (Boost)

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This week, we talk to the Italian Chamber of Commerce, a non-profit organization which aims to help showcase and promote the range of Italian companies and products within Singapore, in a bid to help contribute to the business, and the revenue of Italian and Singapore companies in Singapore.
 
 
 Tell us a little about the Italian Chamber of Commerce and what it does.

Founded in 1991, the Italian Chamber of Commerce Singapore (ICCS) is a non-profit association recognised by the Italian Government. As a member of Assocamerestero, the Association of the Italian Chambers of Commerce Worldwide, ICCS comprises of over 82 Italian Chambers on board.

The Chamber aims to strengthen bilateral relations between Italy and Singapore in collaboration with strategic partners from the two countries. The Italian Chamber of Commerce Singapore is geared to provide a wide range of business services tailored to the requirements of its members, as well as Italian and Singaporean companies. Thanks to strategic partnerships with Institutions, Chambers of Commerce and Agencies in the ASEAN region, the Chamber is a springboard for business in Singapore, South-East Asia and beyond.

To date, ICCS has a headcount of over 200 members, headquartered by two offices located in Singapore and Milan. ICCS provides business consultancy services to over 100 companies each year, whilst organising and supporting more than 150 events worldwide.


What prompted the Italian Chamber of Commerce to conceptualise these measures to help? Which companies are involved in this?
 
Given the upward rise of help needed by businesses all around the world during this pandemic, ICCS made a decision to help Italian companies flourish and emerge stronger. In collaboration with strategic partners in Singapore and Italy, to date, ICCS has been able to support more than 30 companies, making their products readily available to those residing in Singapore, through multiple distribution channels.
 
We started to present the Italian Gallery Singapore project in Italy in February at the beginning of the pandemic, our first partner was the Milan Chamber of Commerce, during the Circuit Breaker-period, we invested most of the time on conference call and webinar to present the projects to the Italian companies, and finally at the end of July we were online with the first group of companies.
 
The aim of the Italian Gallery Singapore project is to help the Italian companies to recover faster the gap created by COVID-19. In ICCS we believe that one year without trade exhibitions, business missions and events will affect the expansion of Italian companies in the SEA Region.
 
ICCS doesn’t want to create an import and distribution company; our scope is to guide the Italian companies to approach in the right way the e-commerce in SEA, from the logistic to the marketing activities. We can consider this project like a commercial incubator or accelerator for Italian companies interested in this part of the World.
 
We always have in mind that in Singapore and in the Region if we talk about the market value on the F&B sector, the biggest slice of cake is in the food service, for this reason as part of our e-commerce project, we have the online activities with e-commerce and the offline activities where we present the companies and their online selling data to local importers and distributors. So, in some way is a win-win situation with the local importers and distributors, we bring new products and brands in town with and e-commerce incubator process, we test the products online, and after few months we present the data to the local importers and distributors. If they think the data are in line with the market, we create the bridge between the Italian producers and the local companies.

 
What kind of products are involved with this e-commerce store? What other activities is the Italian Chamber of Commerce planning to push through for the future?
 
Delving into the brands that have joined this initiative are: GIA s.r.l., a family company located in Emilia Romagna, the Italian Food Valley, manufacturing pesto, anchovies, garlic in paste; Meseta, the leading Italian Private Label coffee producer; Foodelux, offers one of the widest range of Italian products available worldwide; Mokarabia, created to produce blends of coffee for the café sector.
 
In 1988, PrimOli seized an opportunity in the world of extra virgin olive oil and innovated a market with a large scale range of extra virgin olive oils produced and bottled in Italy’s finest olive-growing areas.
 
Amongst the multiple brands is NATURALBOOM, a brand that aims to bring new fans into the health and wellness drink category with their recent launch of the Mental Drink here in Singapore. 
 
Another is Podere San Cristoforo, a biodynamic wine produced in Tuscany. The bio-dymanic is really interesting because it is based on nature. The air, just as the earth, is a system from which the plant nourishes itself. The biodynamic method considers fundamental not only the sunlight, but also the gravitational and magnetic strengths; those energies influence all living organisms, most importantly the development and life cycle of vegetables.
 
For the Christmas season we have online a very famous Italian panettone produces from Milan, Lazzaroni. The Panettone De Milan is produced according to the traditional recipe, through a slow and natural leavening. All the ingredients, from flour to milk, eggs to butter, candied fruit to yeast, are natural, fresh and genuine. The panettone is having a really good success rate in Asia, and in some countries the locals are eating the panettone not only during the Christmas season, but also during the year as a normal cake.


What can we do to purchase these items online?
 
All products are readily available on NTUC Fairprice Online, Redmart and Shopee.
 
To find out more about Italian Chamber of Commerce, please visit:
http://www.italchamber.org.sg
 
SHOPEE:
https://shopee.sg/shop/290648280/search
 
NTUC FAIRPRICE:
https://www.fairprice.com.sg/category/italian-gallery-sg
 
LAZADA: https://www.lazada.sg/shop/italiangallerysg/?spm=a2o42.pdp.seller.1.796e6239hzFf0Q&itemId=942906310&channelSource=pdp
 
REDMART:
https://www.lazada.sg/catalog/?spm=a2o42.lazmart_channel.red-mart-search.1.e7ea48a6PRu9ew&q=giribaldina&_keyori=ss&from=search_history&m=redmart&sugg=giribaldina_0_1
 
Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/italiangallerysingapore/
 
Instagram:
https://www.instagram.com/italiangallery_sg/