Importation was an education

By Sue Hoban – North Shore Times – April 19, 2006-05-22

The three partners behind Nomad Feasts are no strangers to the food industry.  But the import business was another matter.

Emile Gomez who, with is brother Henri and sister Ana Robinsons, wanted to start importing Spanish gourmet products, said they were determined not to go into it with their eyes closed.

“Knowledge is power, ignorance can be disaster, so I think education is essential,” he said.

They are among several local businesses to have taken advantage of an import/export course which the Business Enterprise Northside at Chatswood runs regularly.

Emil Gomez said breaking into international trade was a very complex exercise an although the course had not made it easy, it had certainly made it easier.

“Import/export businesses face so many hurdles but every time we hit a hurdle we were able to get advice.” He said. “The most valuable thing was really just demystifying the whole transaction process.”

He said it also helped them protect against many of the pitfalls and handle the documentation.  “You could cut down small forests with the amount of paperwork which is required and there are no many idiosyncratic ways in which customs and excise people do things in different countries,” he said.

Emile Gomez said the course had helped put Nomad Feasts on a good solid footing.

The Spanish-born siblings now have a thriving business supplying restaurants and gourmet food outlets with Spanish products previously not available in Australia.

They include Mojama, an air-dried and salt-cured tuna made in Spain for 20 centuries, now being hailed as “fish prosciutto”.

“We knew that product had become popular with the top restaurants in Paris and London so we decided to bring it here and now we are supplying it to the top restaurants in Sydney,” Gomez said.

He said the business is now setting up trade contacts to import other products from France and Morocco.