The Italian Trade Agency is close to the eyewear industry

Following the success of the workshop in Miami, the Italian Trade Agency (ICE) continues to implement actions in collaboration with Anfao. We spoke about this with ICE President, Michele Scannavini.What were your first “actions” as president? As soon as I took up my role I wanted to meet and have in-depth talks with associations and companies in the sector to find out about their strategies, programs and need for support from the Italian Trade Agency.ICE is a perfectly oiled organization that sponsors classic promotional actions. The challenge now is to stand alongside Italian companies in the current multichannel and digital evolution by promoting “Made in Italy” products, in addition to providing assistance and support programs for the internationalization of companies, especially SMEs. Another important aspect will be linked to the strengthening of the promotion of Italy as a magnet for foreign investment.In your opinion, what are the causes of the decline and the “cures” that will bring the Italian eyewear industry back to the record levels we were accustomed to before the crisis?The experience of the companies in Italy’s eyewear sector is deeply imprinted in their history and structure. Without a doubt, this experience must be enhanced, as Italian companies are doing already in part: this is demonstrated by the reassuring "back to Italy" data which indicate that Italian companies have understood that after decades of exporting their know-how, Italian design and manufacturing mean unquestionable added value for more discerning customers. Europe and the United States were the markets that gave us the greatest satisfaction in recent years. Now it is time to target emerging markets more decisively, make the most of the new opportunities offered by digital promotion, and act as a mentor for all those companies, even the very young ones, that are considering approaching foreign markets for the first time. This will be the Trade Agency’s commitment in the coming years.At what point is your collaboration with Anfao in our sector?For some years now we have had a consolidated partnership with Anfao that enables us to operate better and provide Italian companies with the best service. Our collaboration begins with market data analysis and the choice of specific promotional actions for the sector. In fact, we believe that it is important to share the strategic lines we intend to pursue and, in this perspective, we have always had excellent dialog and an extremely satisfactory and constructive exchange of opinions with Anfao and the Italian eyewear companies.How was the workshop in Miami? What are the upcoming programs in the US, also for fashion?The Miami workshop - which in reality had all the characteristics of a standalone exhibition with targeted meetings and decidedly lower costs - is a typical example of the operating method that the Italian Trade Agency has tested over the years in partnership with Anfao and which proved to be a successful formula. Now at its third year, the Miami event in October has become a consolidated occasion for meeting some of the best Italian companies that is eagerly awaited by buyers from North and Central America. In the specific case of the USA, a strategic market for Italian eyewear and the Italian fashion industry in general, in addition to ordinary promotional actions, which include taking part in the main trade fair, Vision Expo East in NYC, in the pipeline we also have agreements with large-scale retail trade operators and a program for developing e-commerce in the fashion sector. What are the future appointments for our sector?After taking 24 Italian companies to the Optical Fair in Hong Kong this week, like every year we will be preparing for the MIDO challenge: also for 2017, about 150 buyers and journalists will be carefully selected by the offices in our overseas network. They will be hosted in Milan during the fair and Italian companies will be able to present a preview of their samples. After the aforementioned Vision Expo, in the spring we are scheduled to head for Eastern Europe, where we will repeat the autonomous exhibition formula with buyers and journalists from neighboring countries. On various occasions, we have seen that this is the best way to approach markets that have no international fairs of note.