November 1966 



COMMEECIAL FISHEEIES REVIEW 



19 



international Trade Promotion Office 

 Completes Its First Full Year 



At 8 :00 anij Sunday, September 1 1 , hundreds 

 of Viennese were queued up in front of 20 

 ticket booths. They were not waiting to see 

 a sporting event, listen to Strauss waltzes, 

 or watch folk dancers in lederhosen and dirn- 

 dls. They were eagerly awaiting the chance 

 to buy admission to Austria's annual Inter- 

 national Fall Fair, one of Europe's largest. 



Fig. 1 - Samuel J, Huiclijiisoii oi BCt yives President Franz Jonas 

 of Austria (left) a closer look at one U.S. entry. Behind the 

 President is Henry A. Baehr, U.S. Agricultural Attaclie, Austria. 

 To Hutchinson's right is Herr Strauss, President of Vienna Fair 

 Company. 



For the Viennese, whose own incredibly 

 rich pastries and foods make tourists gasp, 

 the fair was an embarrassment of riches: 

 acres of food and, almost center stage, live 

 shellfish and fresh, frozen, and canned fish 

 from the United States. TWA had flown in 

 these live and fresh entries just the day be- 

 fore: from Florida, Massachusetts, and 

 Washington. The Viennese were thrilled by 

 the sight and taste of them. By the end of the 



first four days of the fair, which ran from 

 September 11-18, 150,000 persons had made 

 their way through the U.S.A. section, including 

 the President of Austria. 



United States participation was sponsored 

 by the Department of Agriculture, an old hand 

 at fairs, and cosponsored by BCF's Office of 

 International Trade Promotion, which was 

 rounding out its first full year of foreign trade 

 promotion. For many years, Agriculture 

 showed the riches of the American soil and 

 farm; now BCF was exhibiting some of the 

 sea's riches. 



Fourteen U. S. firms displayed 35 differ- 

 ent products: from inexpensive squid to cav- 

 iar. Most of the products were new to Vienna. 

 Those attracting most interest were cherry- 

 stone and soft shell clams, quahogs, oysters, 

 shrimp, cape and sea scallops, swordfish, 

 Spanish mackerel, pompano, sea trout, mul- 

 let, flounder fillets, Dungeness crabs, and 

 Pacific salmon. Shrimp products, which are 

 in considerable demand throughout the world, 

 were eyed carefully. And U. S. caviar, roe 

 of the Great Lakes whitefish., won praise from 

 a leading Viennese gourmet importer. 



Maine Flew Lobsters to Munich 



BCF also participated in the International 

 Exhibition of Groceries and Fine Foods, 

 IKOFA, at Munich, Germany, September 17- 

 25. For this event, the same distributors, 

 with the addition of the State of Maine, dis- 

 played about 35 different species, including 

 live lobsters and clams, and other fresh, fro- 

 zen, and canned fishery products. Here again 

 many of the products were new to the vis- 

 itors. One highlight was a tank of live 

 Maine lobsters; Maine cooperated by flying 

 in 100 pounds of live lobsters every 3 days-- 

 and experts to display the lobsters and pro- 

 vide answers. 



Fig. 2 - rhe fresh fish bootli at the international food fair in Vienna. 



