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Japanese Trade Team learns about Indiana ag

A Japanese Trade Team made a stop in Indiana on their way to Seattle for the 2014 Export Exchange.  This morning, the group met with Lt. Governor Sue Ellspermann and Indiana State Department of Agriculture director Ted McKinney.

The Lt. Governor says these trade missions help to strengthen and nurture the relationships with some of Indiana’s strongest trading partners.  “The Japanese are great partners – both on the industry side and the agriculture side,” she says.  “They have an interest in raising their bar in agriculture and continue to talk about ways we can work together.”

AUDIO: Lt. Governor Sue Ellspermann

The delegation will visit a variety of agribusinesses today, but also have the opportunity to sit down with producers of the commodities they use.

Rosiland Leeck, director of grain marketing for the Indiana Corn Marketing Council tells Brownfield those conversations are important for both the delegation and the farmer.  “We have to think about who ultimately is going to use that product,” she says.  “It might be a livestock producer in the United States or it might be a livestock or food manufacturer abroad.  This is an opportunity for our farmers to actually talk to their ultimate end users that happen to be in Japan.”

AUDIO: Rosiland Leeck, Indiana Corn Marketing Council

The group will visit the Mohr farm in Greenfield and the Howell farm in Middletown to finish their day in Indiana.

AUDIO: Ted McKinney, ISDA