Philly’s Bassett Ice Cream gets EXIM Bank visit

From Philly and the Pa. suburbs to South Jersey and Delaware, what would you like WHYY News to cover? Let us know!

The first business to sign a lease at Reading Terminal Market back in 1892 is still whipping up creamy confections with milk from Pennsylvania dairy farmers. Now, instead of just slinging ice cream cones in Center City, Bassetts Ice Cream is being exported across Asia.

That has been the case for the past 15 years, with help from a federal agency that insures against business deal losses on export transactions for American businesses to make international trade less risky. So when federal officials from the U.S. Export-Import Bank visited Philadelphia, they made sure to sample the goods and snag an ice cream cone.

“There’s no deal that’s too small,” said Reta Jo Lewis, president of EXIM Bank who got a taste of the Philly-made sweet treat. “Everything from if they wanted to buy an insurance policy for $250 to be able to export something abroad, to something very, very large.”

There was a steady stream of customers at the Bassetts Ice Cream parlor inside Reading Terminal Market in Philadelphia on Monday before a visit from federal officials. (Kristen Mosbrucker-Garza/WHYY)

EXIM Bank sells insurance so American companies don’t lose out if international business partners can’t pay their bills for exported goods.

In April, the bank launched a new nationwide business insurance product meant to serve historically underrepresented businesses, including minority-owned, women-owned, veteran-owned, disability-owned and rural businesses. It’s called the Equity Express Select export credit insurance policy.

“Businesses that export are doing better, employing more people, are more resilient and have the ability to pivot during very difficult and challenging times. We hope to be there every step of the way,” she said. “The way the export credit insurance works is to guard against the actual risk of non-payment.”

Most of EXIM Bank’s customers are small businesses, she said. EXIM Bank has insured $6 million of shipments of Bassetts Ice Cream to international business partners since 2009. International sales account for more than 20% of the ice cream company’s annual revenue, according to its website.

_{Images are for reference only.Images and contents gathered automatic from google or 3rd party sources.All rights on the images and contents are with their legal original owners.}