Encouraging Exports
The development of export activity is both complex and risky. It requires a lot of preparation and significant costs.
In a rapidly expanding global environmental market, France has been losing market share for several years.
Following a study of the productive fabric, PEXE concluded that only 8% of eco-businesses in France are active in exports. This low percentage is even more striking when considering another finding: 70% of companies try international markets only once.
It is therefore necessary to coordinate in order to reduce the risks inherent in conquering export markets.
Export training, demand identification, differentiation through integrated offers are some of the challenges eco-business networks have faced and for which initiatives have been taken to respond.
This is a major issue for promoting the expertise of French eco-businesses.
Mobilizing the French offer.
The ADEME International Club, an eco-business network dedicated to export, supports the innovative projects of its members internationally by coordinating actions and mobilizing institutional actors. For example, in the context of conducting a feasibility study (Fasep) for the new city of Chrafat in Morocco, the club quickly mobilized to help project leaders coordinate with actions supported by ADEME in Morocco. Regular meetings were organized, particularly during Pollutec Morocco exhibitions, to highlight energy efficiency and sustainable city issues. To mobilize complementary French offers, joint missions were organized between the ADEME International Club and project leaders. The ADEME International Club broadly mobilized French actors involved in sustainable cities to present the final study, allowing this experience to serve as a lever for future projects beyond this one.
CD2E: Inter-cluster collaboration serving export
International inter-cluster collaboration is essential to exchange best practices, develop sectors and collaborative projects, but also to increase the visibility of the sector and that of a region.
These inter-cluster exchanges align with decentralized European economic cooperation, which now enables even further inter-cluster and territory collaborations.
Driven by the Nord-Pas de Calais Regional Council, decentralized economic cooperation is developed with CANADA, BRAZIL, MOROCCO, and TUNISIA to build partnerships through concrete actions aimed at bringing together actors from territories involved in sustainable development dynamics (local authorities, eco-businesses, laboratories…) and promoting technology and knowledge transfers to contribute to the economic reconversion and sustainable planning of these territories.
Its implementation in the environmental field is based on 3 axes:
– Develop shared growth contracts in eco-technologies with environmental clusters internationally.
– Promote a regional cooperation offer to CD2E and TEAM2 members through individual and collective long-term support in connection with local partners abroad.
– Develop rapprochement actions between regional and international eco-structures (eco-businesses, laboratories, local authorities) to foster the emergence of technological and commercial partnerships.
For example, the cooperation initiated in 2011 with Quebec allowed actor rapprochement as well as the development of innovative and sustainable projects. After three missions, this cooperation involved more than 30 companies, 25 young entrepreneurs, and over 15 French and Quebec organizations.
This cooperation also led to a technological exchange agreement between a French and a Quebec company, a partnership agreement between research centers, and the establishment of a French company on Quebec soil. After two years of cooperation, the two networks can anticipate two even more promising years with the strength of their new networks and missions in their regions.
This approach is similarly developed with Morocco, Tunisia, and Brazil. After defining collaboration themes, exchanges take place through regional events such as the European congress on ecotechnologies and the international congress on LCA.
Company visits, individualized business meetings, and matchmaking between companies and laboratories now support eco-businesses, laboratories, and local authorities long-term with win-win international partnerships (with other structures and clusters similar to CD2E).
For more information: http://www.cd2e.com/nos-actions/internationalisation
Coordinating the French offer.
PEXE: action groups to organize the mobilization of eco-businesses for export. The association aims to help an increasing proportion of eco-businesses obtain contracts on international markets. For this, members have formed, since its creation, “export action groups”: the most legitimate actor to ensure the mobilization of SMEs internationally on a given destination or sector is entrusted with the development of export for these companies at the national level. Each acts for all French SMEs, not just their regional members.
The first consequence of this organization is that delegations of companies composing an export mission are much larger, the mission organization being relayed by all other members.
Each member’s action plans are also coordinated, making the competencies on a sector or geographical area clearer through action groups.
A final advantage is that each benefits from long-established contacts in a target country, which do not benefit only members of one network.
Seven action groups are currently active within PEXE: China, India, Water/emerging markets, Renewable Energies, Sustainable development, Waste, and Air quality.
Leaders of these groups are strengthened in their actions, which can be missions, trade shows, or promotional actions of the French offer’s capabilities worldwide. They establish lasting links with priority countries by working with local partners. Generally speaking, these action groups concentrate efforts and avoid dispersion. They are overseen by UBIFRANCE.