Tour Seeks to Broaden Firms’ Horizons : Business: Diplomats from nearly 40 countries will visit in a bid to boost the international trade of local companies.

Officials at a Camarillo company say they have a product that could help oil-producing countries increase their petroleum output and allow other nations to clean up their environmental messes.

The only problem with this miracle product, say officials at First International Resource Marketing, is getting the word out.

So First International jumped at the chance to participate in an upcoming event designed to bring Ventura County business people together with about 50 diplomats from nearly 40 countries.

The event, scheduled Nov. 24, has been arranged by the Ventura County World Affairs Council to help boost the international trade of local companies engaged in agriculture, technology and other industries.

Diplomats from countries as diverse as Liberia and Japan will board a tour bus at the Beverly Wilshire Hotel and ride north into a county most of them do not know very well.

“Most of the consuls general don’t know that Ventura County exists,” said Cindy Cooke, the local World Affairs Council’s executive director. “They don’t have any idea of all the aerospace and computer technology that exists up here.”

The diplomats have sent lists to Cooke’s group of the products or services that their countries are most interested in, ranging from fruit to medical equipment to waste-disposal systems.

On their Ventura County tour, the multinational delegation’s first stop will be the Rockwell Science Center in Thousand Oaks, where 15 local companies will give seven-minute presentations on their products or services.

One of the presenters will be First International, which is the marketing arm for a company that produces Reneu, a clear, odorless liquid used for separating materials. Its applications range from extracting oil from otherwise dry wells to cleaning up toxic spills.

Company officials will be able to market Reneu to diplomats both from oil-producing countries such as Britain and Canada and from countries that are trying to clean polluted rivers and other environmental messes, such as Germany and Hungary.

Unlike some local businesses, officials at the 25-employee company apparently are already savvy at international marketing, having just returned from a 40-day trip to the former Soviet Union to plug their product.

But “the opportunity to sit down and show your stuff to 50 decision makers is truly unique,” said Arthur Neibrief, the company’s executive vice president.

One of the diplomats planning to join the tour said she believes that the event will have the greatest potential benefit for small- to medium-sized companies without international marketing know-how.

Halle Linker, an honorary consul for Iceland, added that the tour may spur more frequent exchanges between diplomats and local businesses.

“This is just an introduction to Ventura County,” said Linker, who is the former vice dean of the Consular Corps, a diplomats association.

After the presentations at Rockwell, the diplomats will be taken on a tour of Port Hueneme, followed by a reception at the Vintage Museum of Transportation and Wildlife in Oxnard with former Los Angeles Times Publisher Otis Chandler, who lives in Camarillo.

The tour will end with dinner at the North Ranch Country Club in Thousand Oaks, where Rep. Jim Leach (R-Iowa), a member of both the Foreign Affairs and Banking committees, will speak about international trade issues.

About 250 business people, public officials and others are expected to participate in the activities for prices ranging from $75 for the dinner to $1,000 for a slot to give a presentation at the Rockwell Science Center.

For information or reservations, call 648-1882.