Sweet smells of Sicily

Toronto Chamber of Commerce hosts initiative with Italian region

Following on the heels of the event devoted to the Region of Tuscany, the Italian Chamber of Commerce of Toronto launched another major promotion of Italian companies. This time the event was organized in collaboration with Mondimpresa (an agency for the internationalization of SMEs) and with the Chambers of Commerce of Ragusa and Messina. The objective is to open the Canadian market for a large group of agri-food companies from those two provinces.
The Sicilian event took place over two days, September 30 and October 1, in the prestigious Westin Harbour Castle Hotel. The first day opened with a morning workshop held in the Pier 7 & 8 Room where the economic strategy of the two Sicilian Chambers was illustrated. After that the representatives of the Sicilian companies met with Canadian wholesalers and importers in the Regatta Room. The meetings continued in the same location the following day.
The specialities proposed to the Toronto markets are those most typical of the two Italian provinces (extra-virgin olive oil, wines, preserves, dairy products, citrus fruits, cereals, toasted coffee, confectionery, high quality cold meats), made with organic ingredients and using top technologies.
"Our objective," says Danny Caranci, one of the vice presidents of the Italian Chamber of Commerce of Toronto, "is not just to open a new market for Italian products, in this case Sicilian ones, but also to link the Italian reality with the Canadian one. Therefore, I'm convinced that an operation like this will be useful to Sicilian producers and to the Italian-Canadian community: circulation of goods entails circulation of ideas. There will also be advantages for Canadian society, enriched with new Mediterranean flavours and healthy and excellent food."
Caranci did not stop at this week's initiative. "We are working hard," he says, "to raise the profile of the Italian Chamber of Commerce of Toronto, and the successful initiatives we organized prove that we are on the right track. Now the Chamber can take a quantum leap, because it has an excellent team: Nick Simone, secretary general, Luigi Casagrande, marketing manager, and Corrado Paina, editor of our magazine ItalyCanada Trade, which is becoming nicer with every issue.
"And then there is Laura Dal Bo, Tiziana Tedesco, Tiziana Valeri, and Eleonora Coldato. We're proud of our staff: we shall go places with them."

Publication Date: 2002-10-06
Story Location: http://tandemnews.com/viewstory.php?storyid=1827