FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
FRIDAY, AUG. 22, 2008

Ford’s Gourmet Foods to be honored
as first N.C. Exporter of the Year

RALEIGH — Ford’s Gourmet Foods will be awarded the first North Carolina Exporter of the Year award at the Specialty Foods Association’s annual banquet Saturday, Aug. 23, at the Sheraton Four Seasons Hotel in Greensboro.

Sandi Ford, president and founder, and her son Patrick Ford, international marketing director, will accept the honor from the N.C. Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services. The department created the award to honor agriculture businesses that successfully export N.C. food products around the world.

"I am impressed with Ford’s Gourmet Foods’ innovative global marketing strategies,” said Agriculture Commissioner Steve Troxler. “Our state’s agriculture and agribusiness industries are being represented well beyond our borders, and that’s very important in today’s changing marketplace.”

The specialty food company grew out of Ford’s Produce Co., a fourth-generation family business formed in 1946. The company first exported its “Bone Suckin’” barbeque sauces to countries such as the United Kingdom, Denmark, New Zealand and Hong Kong in 1994, and now ships its sauces, salsas and nuts to customers in more than 30 countries.

Since rejoining the family business in 1997, Patrick Ford expanded its international presence by exhibiting at 36 international trade shows in seven countries and has spoken at the World Trade Center in North Carolina, Wake Technical College Business and Industry Center, and for the N.C. Community College System.

North Carolina ranks ninth in the country in terms of agricultural export value, according to a 2007 report by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, with more than $2 billion each year in exports.