Fiscal 2025-26 was a busy year for BC Wood in Asia, so it is worthwhile to look back at what was accomplished and think about how we can build on those activities to further support industry in the current fiscal year.
The first major activity for us each year is of course the Global Buyers Mission. The high cost of travel in addition to competition for attention from other events made recruiting buyers last year more challenging. However, with an aggressive marketing program and a brand-new resort market themed extended mission option, the BC Wood Japan Office created a lot of buzz around the GBM resulting in 31 Japanese buyers signing up. This year we are still facing expensive airfares, but the Global Buyers Mission is top of mind as increased supply chain risks has everyone looking to hedge with new options. As a result, we look forward to an even bigger contingent of importers, distributors, and specifiers in Whistler this September from not only Japan, but other Asian markets such as China and Korea as well.
One new initiative last year was the in-market missions that were made possible by new funding from FII. These missions focused on giving members the opportunity to not only visit buyers’ facilities to learn firsthand what they were importing and building, but to also take part in one-on-one pre-set meetings with importers handling similar products. In Japan, we ran two of these missions, one for lumber products in the fall and one for high-end resort developments in the winter, during which each member was able to have over 20 such meetings. In Korea we ran a similar program in February where our companies networked with over 200 industry leaders over two events. These mission programs were well received by members as they were able to meet so many well-matched buyers during an efficient program. Based on what we learned, we will be offering further refined programs in both Japan and Korea this year, starting with a lumber products focused mission to Japan in November.
The core of our Asian programs has always been in-market trade shows and with additional federal funding part way through 2025-26 we were able to bring back a full slate of options for our members. In Japan, we continued our tradition of organizing the Canadian Pavilions at both the Japan Home and Building Show and the Nikkei Architectural and Construction Materials Show, reaching an audience of over 230,000 industry professionals. The extra funding made our presence possible at Korea Build Week as well as return to the massive woodworking show known as Interzum in Guangzhou, China after a six-year absence. Unfortunately, we applied late for Interzum so our space was limited. With the funding that is available to us this fiscal year, we plan to increase our footprint in the major Japanese shows, return to the hospitality industry focused HoteRes Show in Tokyo targeting high-end finishing materials, as well as delivering larger pavilions in Korea and China. In short, we will be creating more opportunities and increasing support for members looking to diversify trade to Asia during these challenging times.
If you are interested in learning more about our programming for the Asian markets please reach out to me by email (ivanoff@bcwood.jp) to set-up an appointment to chat.
