Mr B G Hebbalkar, the economic and trade commissioner of Flanders, Belgium, represents the region in Mumbai and is the person you need to contact if you have any inquiry about the import of a product or a prospective joint venture abroad or locally. Mr Hebbalkar's office oversees requests from the home country for direct exports with the intention of locating an agency relationship with buyers in the host country.

The trade commission also pursues collaborations and joint ventures in, among others, technology, product partnerships, quartz sand, yeast products, equipment, food and drink and waste and water treatment. What is interesting and off-beat is the "unusual products" category of products thatBelgium makes and exports - such as comic strips, translation machines, portable harpischors, crystal ware, racing pigeons, cyclotrons and digital networks for medical diagnostics.

"One of the trade enquiries that came to me was from a couple in Flanders who wanted to know the feasibility of ostrich farming in India," says Mr Hebbalkar. Obviously nothing is out of bounds and everything is really impossible. Recently, the trade commission had, on a more conventional footing, organised a carpet manufactureres and sellers trade meet in Mumbai.

Write, call or send a fax to Mr Hebbalkar, Economic and Trade Commissioner of Flanders, Belgium, Morena, 11 M L Dahanukar Marg, Mumbai 400026. Tel: 4980695, 4974302. Fax: 4950420.