As I suggested it..I will start it...A Did you know post of things produced by the Portuguese and sold either here or world wide

(1) CORK...For everything from wine stoppers to the lining of Mercedes cars and space craft
(2) TECHNOLOGY .the British Police use a system created in Portugal

(3) DESIGNER SHOES..Made in Madeira expensive shoes worn by the Dutchess
of Cambridge and her mother and sister at her wedding to Prince William,now
a much sort after brand
(3) Exquisitely woven wool blankets made in one of the 'Schist.Villages' sold WW
recently seen in the Atelier of Piet Van Eik..he of the reclaimed wooden
furniture fame (bought by Royalty)

Off to think of some more ..over to you...

Not enough Portuguese wines sold in the UK apart from the infamous rose in the squat bottle.
Have started to see some soft fruits from Portugal in the big UK supernarkets.
Aluminium roof rails on some cars are manufactured in the Portuguese subsiduary of German auto components group.
John lewis sell some ceramics and linens from Portugal.

GeniB...I think you are SO right. I LOVE THIS IDEA!!
I think in addition to suggesting businesses to each other on this forum
we could actually lend our assistance to these business with their cool products and services ...what do you think? >...teach a man to fish kinda thing???
I copied this that I wrote in response to you, from the other POST. Me slow

I've only been here 6-months (today) but what a bit of American/ International ingenuity could do here to help start-ups and young businesses get recognized and sell their stuff! WHY NOT?


EXAMPLE: On my way to my Vet in Amancil, I spotted a hand written sign in front of a tiny shop on the N125, which said 'Portuguese Craft Beers'...I barely saw it, I said to meself, I'm going to stop in there on my way back. So I did. OMG what an interesting business concept...the shop was full of alcoholic drinks all MADE IN PORTUGAL; Gins, beers, liqueurs etc., etc. not a handmade knitted thingy anywhere just really cool drink!
But, it was poorly set up, very rough and when I tried to buy nearly E100 worth of goodies... they had no service to take even a Debit Card. I said well let's go online and you send me a PayPal invoice and I'll buy your stuff this way...Nope couldn't do this.
They said they weren't getting enough customers to pay for the credit card service...I explained my order alone would have covered a good part of the bank fees. They suggested I turn my car around and drive to (and back) an ATM about 6 blocks away. HMMMMMMMM!



They ran a print 'info-advert' in one of the English language newspapers...nearly 1/2 page and "didn't get one customer" from the advert. Gee, I explained that when you run print advertising you must think in terms of MONTHS of consistent advertising to get a response and 75% of the advertisements value is in BRANDING your business name and service to potential customers AND each advert must also have a 'call-to-action' such as; 'Come to our shop every Thursday (this month only) between 6pm-8pm for craft beer 'tasting', mention this advertisement and get 25% off a 6-pack and enter a drawing for a Portuguese bottle of Gin'. I also suggested they provide yummy snacks. They said they could not afford this. I said that perhaps they get a local caterer looking to increase business to donate the snack-type food and give out coupons to their own business'....WHY NOT?



So, yes, I'd love to help find a way to promote MADE IN PORTUGAL businesses. I'll help. How about free seminars on HOW TO PROMOTE YOUR PRODUCTS/ SERVICE? Something like that, or?
Just a thought.....

Wind turbine blades. Manufactured here in Viana after the closure of the ship building section. Foreign ships are often seen loading these massive blades on a regular basis.

I'm guessing it's still a throw back to the bad old days of doing everything 'on the black' munster. when they say they haven't got a credit card machine.It means your sale isn't going through Financas.. Getting a licence to do any sort of business here is a nightmare,so some start without one.Maybe this is the case with your beer guy. My OH already does online mentoring with Belgian companies .Explaining that concept here has taken some time but hopefully he will be starting that at the Uni soon.

Portuguese Wine now sold in the Netherlands EMR. Plus a lot of it is going to China

(5 ) PORT...Plus the Douro valley tours

GeniB I hope what your OH is doing becomes a success!
Actually the BZ mentoring idea I was suggesting is face-to-face mentoring. In NZ the Chamber of Commerce + Federal Government sponsored a business mentoring program. We Ex (and current) business men and women offered our services for free to the organisation.
The entrepreneur paid $100 for the service for 1-hour per month for up to 2-years of a monthly Mentoring service between one or more of the registered Mentors and him/herself.
After we Mentors met with an Entrepreneur, we then filled out an online client status report with a synopsis of the discussions and actions agreed to be taken by the Entrepreneur which s/he could review and comment. We also wrote a separate confidential report for the organisation itself including data such as the date/time we met, our opinions, next appointment set and if we needed another Mentor to step in, this report was available to all other mentors on the website.
Often the meetings were about very basic business practice, how to market the product, set up books, when to hire staff.
In more mature (still early stage) cases, the subjects might include how to close a failing company, sell a business, export, raise capital and such.
It was a real success. I could see this working here. It's a very simple program. Portuguese to Portuguese, yes?
The $100 fee was matched buy private business donations and the government. Successful businesses pay more taxes. It was used to fund the website development, advertising (for Mentors and Entrepreneurs) and office administration as quickly thousands of people signed up for the service. Just an idea....who knows

We have a vineyard near us owned by a dutch couple and they send tbeir wine to holland.

The Dutch would jump on it .They are entrepreneurs par excellence. First time I went back to visit friends in Den Bosch I walked into a tiny back street wine shop to find a complete table of Portuguese wines set out in the middle of this cramped space.I asked the owner if he was importing the wine and he said 'No not yet,a guy just walked in and asked if I was interested in selling it,he was asking a ridiculously low price for it,so I am doing a little promotion to see if it will sell at a better price..THEN I will import it.That was 5 yrs ago.Friends say it's selling like hot cakes now

In the UK to get on the shelves of the supermarkets where the vast majority of UK wine is sokd they would have to compete with the screw top, tanker wines bottled in those well known wine areas if Guilford and Bristol.
Sold for under 5 pounds with a large chunk of that going in vat and duty.The actual contents and bottle probably cost less than 1.50 pounds.

A search of the official Portuguese Govt database of exporters lists over 6000 enterprises across all sectors.

A report in Publico, two days ago, reports that Technology exports have increased 53% over the past decade and in 2014, represented 3,6% or total exports.

Exportações de alta tecnologia subiram 53% esta década - PÚBLICO

Portugal produces and exports much more than most estrangeiros are even aware off.

This is what drives me mad about my country. Where did this need for 'cheap' come from? We are now known for it. I much prefer being a rosbiefie' than being a 'cheapo'.. Are we really people who prefer clothes from Primark? Approve of little children going blind making them?.Blocks of disgusting flats collapsing on poor women slaves who make our designer T shirts.? Supermarkets who drive out the local growers of quality produce to ship in Asparagus from Peru. and yes sell us c***p in screw top bottles.. Don't get me started...well you have I guess
It's why I buy anything and everything local if I can to keep some of this quality produce and products going.The lady I used to buy exquisite hand embroidered linnen hand towels from had a stroke two yrs ago..her shop is still closed.maybe never open again. I expect to walk into my local supermarket one day soon and find my fantastic local bread has been replaced entirely by Bimbo (mexican by the way) or god forbid,mothers pride..at the request of the British ex-pats whose teeth have never encountered anything crusty for yrs.

Please do not get me started on those who live in Portugal but will buy frozen sliced bread from the UK or even milk and veg packaged in the UK and trucked halfway across Europe.
We have seen massive changes in our local PT supernarkets with the range of products and value offered increasing.
So the fresh bread only lasts for a day, just buy less, who wants a chemical bread that will last for two weeks.

I don't get this either. If people want crappy bread they can get Portuguese crappy bread anyway (i.e. Bimbo etc.) Yet frozen Kingsmill and the like is one of the biggest sellers in the English shops.

A few weeks ago we stopped in ferragudo for a tosta mista, the waiter knowing us a regukars asked with a grin if we wanred " english bread " or " real bread ".
Those who went for english got bimbo we got the traditional doorstep..