07/11/08 Commerce Department program brings visitors to Washington's processing industry

Commerce Department program brings foreign visitors to processing industry. This is the Northwest Farm and Ranch Report. I'm Bob Hoff. Today's report next. Farm and Ranch July 11, 2008 The U.S. Commerce Department has a program called Special American Business Internship Training, or SABIT for short. Matt Harris, Director of Trade for the Washington State Potato Commission says a group of participants in SABIT recently visited Washington. Harris: "And what they were focusing on in the region of Central Asia, Western Eur-Asia and the Caucuses was on bringing over a delegation of folks to learn about vegetable processing and also to make a connection with those processors for prospective purchases." Harris provides more detail on which countries these visitors were from. Harris: "The body of the group was made up of folks from Moldova, Armenia, Georgia, the Ukraine. So, it was a wide group of people that were recently in Washington state." A group of prospective chip potato buyers were also recently in Washington. And Harris says later this year the US Potato Board is hosting a reverse trade mission that will bring business people from Mexico and Southeast Asia to Washington with a focus on frozen potato products. That's the Northwest Farm and Ranch Report. Brought to you in part by the Washington State Potato Commission. Nutrition today! Good health tomorrow! I'm Bob Hoff on the Northwest Ag Information Network.