U.S. Commercial Service Helps Tea Company Navigate Complex International Regulations
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Stash Tea, headquartered in Portland, Oregon, is one of the largest specialty tea companies in the United States. Founded in 1972, Stash Tea originally operated out of an old Victorian home in Portland, supplying loose herbal teas and bulk herbs to natural food stores. After customers began requesting specialty bagged teas, the company became one of the first tea companies in the world to sell bagged herbal teas, in 1975.
Several years ago, Stash Tea decided they needed to increase their international rate of expansion in order to keep up with their competitors.
The company began working with the U.S. Commercial Service's Portland Export Assistance Center. Allan Christian of Commercial Service – Portland, helped Stash Tea customize a Gold Key program in Brazil where they visited the market and were introduced to several distributors.
Stash Tea's CEO Tom Lisicki credits the U.S. Commercial Service with "saving the day", especially when it comes to understanding and complying with complex international import requirements, and country-specific food regulations.
A few months ago, with the assistance of the U.S. Commercial Service, Stash Tea exported its first container of tea to Brazil. It was a huge milestone.
Most recently, Stash Tea worked with the U.S. Commercial Service to install new distributors in Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Germany and Central America. Today, Stash Tea is sold in more than two dozen countries around the world.
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