Alabama trade officials, led by Commerce Secretary Greg Canfield, are in Germany to help develop trade partnerships for Alabama based businesses.
“The journey to Munich and nearby Augsburg is the Alabama Department of Commerce’s first trade and business development mission since before the pandemic, when an Alabama team traveled to the United Arab Emirates in September 2019,” Commerce said in announcing the trip.
The trip is a collaboration with the U.S. Small Business Administration.
Trip participants will participate in the EU-US Small and Medium Enterprise Best Practices Workshop, which focuses on “SME’s Rising: Recovery Together on Both Sides of the Atlantic.” That gathering takes place in Augsburg.
“Through our Office of International Trade, we are leading the charge to ensure that Alabama companies are directly connected to the resources they need to access foreign markets and develop export opportunities,” said Greg Canfield, secretary of the Alabama Department of Commerce.
“We are committed to strengthening Alabama’s international ecosystem and working with our trade partners on every level to foster a healthy climate for international business,” he added.
Alabama businesses that are participating in the trade mission are Huntsville-based Gene Capture, BLOC Global Group from Birmingham, EV hospitality company Domestique, Birmingham industrial engineering firm Adah International and ASHIPA Electric of Birmingham.
German partnerships have been particularly important to Alabama in the last quarter century. Since 1999, German firms have invested nearly $10 billion here.
