Made in Macedonia

Help Promote Macedonian Products Worldwide

United Macedonian Diaspora (UMD) is pleased to announce its new international program “Made In Macedonia” also known as “MiM”. The program has one straightforward objective. It encourages Macedonians in our Diaspora to promote Macedonian made products throughout the world.

The motivation for launching MiM is best expressed by the actions of two Diaspora Macedonians who took the initiative to promote Macedonian products in their respective home communities.

Below are commentaries about the two Macedonians and what they did to have Macedonian products become available at their hometown merchants.

Macedonians throughout our Diaspora can help in similar ways to promote Made in Macedonia products in their local areas.

Here are the stories of the two Macedonians.

***One Macedonian in the Diaspora, who was vacationing in the Republic, purchased several bottles of a particular Macedonian red wine prior to his departure to take back with him. Once home, he soon realized he would be hard-pressed to find Macedonian wine to purchase in his community after he consumed the wine he bought in the homeland.

He contacted several wine shops and liquor stores in his locale to ascertain if they sold wine from Macedonia. None of the establishments stocked any Macedonian wines whatsoever. So he took an empty bottle of the wine he purchased in Macedonia to his favorite neighborhood wine shop. He asked the proprietor if he could stock the wine in his store. He left his name and phone number with the proprietor to contact him once the wine was delivered so that he could purchase some.

After several weeks had passed, the wine shop owner called to advise that he is now stocking the Macedonian red wine in his business. The Macedonian promptly went to the store and purchased several bottles. As time passed, he went back to the store to buy several more bottles. The store owner told him that the red wine is selling better than expected and he decided to also carry white wine from the same Macedonian winery. Now, both a red and white Macedonian wine is available at the shop where none had ever been stocked before.

The Macedonian wondered to himself if one local wine store is willing to stock Macedonian wine, would other stores also be willing? He took three empty bottles of red wine and three of white to find out. Off he went to three other local liquor stores in his area and asked each if they, too, would carry the Macedonian wines.

A month later, he visited each of the three liquor stores and found that all of them are stocking Macedonian wines.

***Another Diaspora Macedonian visited a Mediterranean food emporium in the large metropolitan area where she lives. She was pleasantly surprised to find Macedonian halva and ajvar for sale at that establishment and promptly bought several containers of each. As her family eventually consumed both the halva and ajvar, she thought it was too bad the local supermarket did not carry either item as she objected to traveling a long distance to purchase them.

She salvaged an empty container of the halva and one of the ajvar and took them to discuss, with the supermarket manager, if both items could be stocked there. The manager advised he could not promise but would look into the possibility. After several weeks had transpired, she was delighted to find both the Macedonian halva and ajvar are now stocked on the local supermarket’s shelves.

If these two Macedonians can impact the sale of Made in Macedonia products on a small scale, the impact that thousands of Macedonians in our Diaspora would have on the Macedonian economy could be significant.
Products made in Macedonia would also be available to non-Macedonians consumers as well.

Additional food items, dry goods, and other products produced in Macedonia could be introduced to consumers globally as was the wine, halva, and ajvar cited above.

The result could be a slow, steady increase in the growth of the Macedonian economy and retention, if not an increase, of workers in the Republic.

If you have already introduced a Macedonian product of any kind, in your home community, please let us know so that we can publicize it to other Macedonians in the Diaspora. If you have a unique idea on how best to promote Macedonian products made in the Republic, please let us know that also. If you know of producers of goods in Macedonia, who are seeking to export their products, we’d like to know about that as well.

Your effort can inspire others to do the same.

You may contact us at MadeInMacedonia @ umdiaspora.org

Let’s all do our part so that the words “MADE IN MACEDONIA” are seen around the world.