MDA Assistant Commissioner Charlie Poster welcomed a delegation of Chinese feed buyers and suppliers on a recent visit to Minnesota. The 23-member group came to the U.S. to learn the most advanced feed manufacturing technologies and how to best utilize soybean meal in maximizing animal production.

The visitors were hosted by the Minnesota Soybean Growers Association at the Blue Earth County farm of Sam and Earl Ziegler.  

In his welcoming remarks, Assistant Commissioner Poster emphasized that the Minnesota Department of Agriculture is committed to long-term agricultural trade with China and would continue to provide assistance to our Chinese trade partners.

The farm tour was a highlight of the Chinese delegation's U.S. visit. They showed great interest in every aspect of the farm operation, including the equipment and machinery, and crops and hog production.

MDA economist Su Ye, who assisted with the delegation's farm tour, says China's demand for soybeans is not waning. 

"Many members of this delegation included soybean meal suppliers whose combined purchase of U.S. soybeans exceeded 830,000 metric tons last year," said Ye.  "They project to double or triple the amount of purchases over the next three to five years."

Minnesota food and agriculture companies stand to gain from the recent USDA allocations in Market Access Program (MAP) funding.  The funding includes almost $11 million for the Food Export Association of the Midwest, which has a long history of assisting Minnesota companies in exporting products in the global marketplace.   

MDA International Trade Representative Shannen Bornsen says the Food Export and MAP programs have opened doors for Minnesota producers and processors in existing and emerging markets.    

"When you look at the total agricultural economy in Minnesota, our farmers and businesses are successful because they produce more than we utilize," said Bornsen. "Finding markets here and abroad is what continues to drive that success."

So let's look at a few of these success stories:

• Papa George LLC, a Stillwater meat products company, attended a Food Export Midwest trade mission to Central America that focused on food service products. There, they made ten new buyer contacts, established one new distributorship, and made a first-time export sale to Panama.  
• Giroski Agro, headquartered in Miami, Florida, in partnership with producers in Minnesota and North Dakota, participated in a Food Export trade mission to Chile. Company officials say face-to-face meetings with a distributor started the negotiations that led to their first sale of lentils two weeks later. Two more shipments followed for approximately $450,000 in new export sales for the company.
• Grain Millers Dairy Products, Inc., an Eden Prairie ingredient supplier, attended two Food Export trade shows - in Chili and in the Middle East. This resulted in a new distributorship with a trading company in Dubai and the subsequent sale of one container of whey powder valued at $19,000. The company also shipped four containers of dairy commodities to Chile last year valued at $56,000 per container and are in the process of shipping four more. Company reps says they expect these sales to continue long term.  

U.S. organic industry valued at nearly $29 billion

While total U.S. food sales grew by less than one percent in 2010, the organic food industry grew by 7.7 percent, according to the Organic Trade Association's annual survey.

MDA Organic Specialist Meg Moynihan says it's terrific news for Minnesota's organic farmers and food companies.

"Consumer demand for organic products just keeps climbing which means increased market opportunities for our organic sector," she said. "In the past, people thought of organic as mainly food products but now there are more organic beverages and beauty products in the stores."