Answer the following questions by reading the below article:

1. In the case, Maria de Lourdes Sobrino has been struggling to get paid by unreliable foreign clients. Explain how Exim bank could be a viable solution. In other words, what are some reasons (or benefits) to consider using their services?

2. What other solutions could you suggest to minimize this risk?

Case Study: LuLus Dessert

For Maria de Lourdes Sobrino, it all began in 1982 in a 700-square-foot storefront in Torrance, California, with a milk crate for a chair and her mothers Mexican-style recipe for gelatin. From humble beginnings and driven by her entrepreneurial spirit, Sobrino, known as LuLu to her friends and customers, began preparing tasty treatsand soon thereafter founded her own company, LuLus Dessert.

Starting with snacks from her childhood, such as jalapeno-flavored carrots and roasted peanuts, Sobrino soon graduated to making jiggly fruit-flavored taste treats known in Spanish as gelatina. Unlike Jell-O, which then was made only in powdered form, Sobrinos gelatin was ready to eat from the time a customer bought it a concept that Jell-O would not market for another 11 years.

Thanks to gelatin flavors such as Fruit Fantasia, Orange Blast, Creamy Vanilla with Cinnamon, and Sugar Free-De-Light, LuLus has something for everyone. With total sales of about $10 million annually, LuLus is already pleasing the palates of customers in the United States and Mexico; but this is only the beginning.

INTERNATIONAL TRADE AND MARKETING CHALLENGES

Sobrino began exporting to Mexico in 1992 and opened offices and a distribution center there, but despite her knowledge of the Mexican market, she faced great difficulty in selling her product because of her inexperience in the export process.

She often had only vague information on potential distributors of her product and did not know how to ensure that they were qualified and legitimate. She also did not have the most updated market research reports on Mexico.

I spent 10 years trying to make international sales and continued to run into all kinds of problems especially buyers who wouldnt pay or couldnt afford letters of credit. Sobrino says that one time she even went to Chile to try to collect a debt from a customer but had no luck.

In one European country, LuLus trademark was stolen and used by another company. Sobrino also found that customers in Latin America often prefer sweeter desserts than do people in the United