U.S. Grants to Help Small Companies Join Export Markets
The Oxnard-based California Coast World Trade Center Assn. will get a chance to help more small companies get into the export business thanks to $375,000 in federal grants--that is, if local governments, businesses and utilities provide 25% matching funds.
The nonprofit World Trade Center last month was designated one of five Southern California agencies to share a $2.6-million grant from the U.S. Economic Development Agency over the next 2 1/2 years in a program called LA Trade. The grant would promote development of export markets by providing leads, foreign market communication, counseling and training and by matching California products with international markets.
To raise local funds, the center’s 130 member corporations are planning to capitalize on World Trade Week next month, when the center, celebrating its 10th year in Oxnard, hosts a daylong trade exhibition and workshop on export opportunities. The center, with a $200,000 annual budget for an administrative staff of three, plus five interns, is soliciting corporate sponsorships for the May 25 seminar at Oxnard’s Radisson Suites Hotel.
If it gets the grant money, the trade group plans to hire two full-time trade and communication specialists and more administrative aides, as well as purchase an international computer on-line system. Jana Goldsworthy, executive director of Oxnard’s World Trade Center, says that exporting is a key to creating new jobs in Ventura County and that the business accounts for one in every seven California jobs.
The World Trade Center’s members mostly export their wares to Japanese, Mexican and Canadian markets, she said, citing the top exports as agricultural produce, biomedical supplies, car parts and clothing.
The Oxnard center represents beach communities from Monterey to Malibu. It is one of 280 world trade centers in 81 countries and helps more than 1,000 companies annually. Among the center’s members are food corporations as large as Sunkist in Port Hueneme and as small as Mission Produce in Oxnard.
