EVALUATING THE POTENTIAL OF CEYLON ORGANIC FOOD PRODUCTS IN THE FINNISH MARKET : Case company: Epic Life Food LTD

This thesis is commissioned by the company Epic Life Food LTD. based in Ceylon, Sri Lanka. The company operates in the business-to-business market and is focused on the production of premium organic food prod-ucts including a wide range of coconut products, cinnamon, vanilla as well as raw infused bee honey and spices. Virgin coconut oil (VCO) is stated as the target product for the research. The company already exports VCO to Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, Dubai, Canada and Hong Kong and is planning to expand to the EU, especially to the Nordic area. The aim of the thesis is to evaluate the potential of Ceylon organic food products – VCO in particular – in the Finnish business-to-business food market and to establish the most suitable market entry strategy for it. In order to achieve the desirable result, a solid theoretical framework regard-ing market research and market entry strategies was developed. Moreover, the author used both primary and secondary data to analyze the current situation of the Finnish food market and to come up with valuable recom-mendations. The results showed that the general business-to-business food market en-vironment is positively tuned towards new market entrants in the organic food area. Many companies are searching for natural healthier oil, flour, sugar, flavours substitutes. Therefore, virgin coconut oil as well as coconut flour and coconut sugar could perform as good alternatives. The author gave recommendations about an efficient market entry strategy implemen-tation combining the main strengths of the case company and the current situation of the Finnish market