In December 2023, Scout & Zoe’s Premium Pet Products, from Anderson, Indiana, traveled to Dubai to participate in Food Export-Midwest’s Food Show PLUS!™ at the Pet Festival Dubai. While there, they met with several buyers from the United Arab Emirates. The Indiana manufacturer has now selected a distributor for the UAE and projects sales to exceed $45,000 in the next twelve months with this buyer. 

According to Cindy Dunston Quirk, Owner of Scout & Zoe’s, “I really enjoyed the pet festival and felt this was a great way to gauge how well pets are cared for in Dubai. Talking with pet owners, potential distributors, and store owners was very informative.” In addition to establishing relationships and education while traveling to Dubai, Cindy’s company has increased awareness in the Middle East. The Indiana company is now set to expand to additional countries to gain even more revenue from its expanding global presence.  

Since 2010, Scout & Zoe’s has provided premium dog chews and pet treats to enhance the lives of pets. Initially, what began as a way to solve a need for the founder’s own pups, Scout & Zoe, has grown from a simple idea to a global entity. Scout & Zoe uses USA-sourced, human-grade ingredients to create treats with diverse proteins for pet parents who consider their pets family members. Within one year of creating Scout and Zoe’s, their products were being exported to pet parents across the globe. Food Export has helped Scout & Zoe’s to continue this by offering many opportunities to create relationships with foreign buyers. 

Woman-owned Scout & Zoe’s has participated in Food Export programs since 2015, participating in the Branded Program, the Online Product Catalog, webinars, Buyers Missions, the Export Advisor Program, Food Show PLUS!, Focused Trade Missions, and Virtual Consultations.  

Food Export uses funding from the Market Access Program (MAP) to help America’s small businesses increase their exports of food and agricultural products. As these exports increase, these small businesses are creating jobs and improving the strength and stability of our agricultural economy. Food Export-Midwest and Food Export-Northeast are non-profit organizations that work in collaboration with their member state departments of agriculture and the USDA’s Foreign Agricultural Service. They offer a wide range of programs and services that help boost America’s agricultural exports.