UA Trade Center Celebrates 20 Years of Service, Creates $18 Million in New State Exports in 1999

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — The Alabama International Trade Center (AITC) at The University of Alabama is celebrating 20 years of service to the state’s business community and to the University’s students.

The AITC is one of the nation’s first university-based trade centers established to promote export trade for small businesses. Through a staff of international trade specialists and UA students, the center helps small businesses find export markets, allowing for job growth and expansion of Alabama’s economy.

The AITC has operated statewide serving over 3,500 small businesses throughout Alabama. This work has resulted in more than $110 million in new export sales. In 1999, the AITC served a record number of 467 small businesses located throughout 57 counties in Alabama. The efforts of the staff, in combination with UA student assistants, created $18 million in first time export sales for 1999.

A nonprofit organization funded by the University and the Small Business Administration, the AITC provides foreign market research, counseling and training to Alabama companies and public agencies.

Brian Davis, AITC associate director, said that more than 95 percent of the world’s population lies outside the United States, and the hands-on program helps firms recognize the potential in foreign markets.

“We help take the mystery out of exporting,” Davis said. The center offers a variety of services including international market research, strategic planning, and export training. Other services are targeted for specific Alabama industrial sectors and foreign countries.

“Whatever the product, there is almost always an export market for it,” Davis said. “We get involved on a very in-depth basis, working with companies one-on-one in finding out where they can sell their product, who they can sell it to, how they can ship it; finding and screening local trade partners for them; researching export laws and trade restrictions within foreign markets — very specific information.”

The University’s AITC educates and prepares small businesses in Alabama to enter the international marketplace. Alabama’s exports are now a $7 billion industry and contribute over 110,000 direct jobs to the state’s economy.

The AITC works with a variety of small to moderate-sized Alabama companies with products such as computer software, baked items, seafood, agriculture and lumber. Forestry products are the state’s largest agribusiness export.

For the Prime Pine mill in Weogufka, near Sylacauga, 75 percent of their business is exports because of the efforts of the AITC. The company sells its furniture and cabinetry-grade lumber — cut sap and prime and No. 2 lumber — to brokers in Europe and the Caribbean Basin. The wood goes into doors, molding, windows, chairs and dressers.

Bud’s Best Cookies in Birmingham began working with the AITC and exporting three years ago. Last year’s exports reached 10 percent of revenues, and hopes to grow it to 25 percent next year. They started exporting to markets such as Israel, the Caribbean Basin and Central America.

The center is not only helping small businesses enter into the international market, but it is also helping students enter the job market. The AITC prepares a future workforce for careers in exporting. UA students working at the center get practical training by conducting real-life research for the companies.

“The AITC has a direct impact on the state’s economy, but it also impacts the students who work for the center,” Davis said. He also said that students gain practical experience they can apply to their future careers. By working on the projects, students are able to create a broader job market for themselves because of the useful knowledge they acquire.

Dr. William R. Bennett, retired UA professor of international marketing, founded the center in 1979 by taking graduate students to conduct foreign market studies for Alabama companies. Through the center’s internship and graduate assistantship programs, students have gone on to jobs in government and businesses in the United States and abroad. Over 215 UA graduate and undergraduate students have worked at the AITC.

For manufacturing firms with fewer than 500 employees, there is no charge for AITC research services, because of received funding from the Alabama Small Business Development Consortium, a program with the U.S. Small Business Administration.

The AITC’s mission is to help both companies and students to be successful in the global marketplace. “The world offers lots of opportunities,” Davis said.