Governor's Trade Mission

Gov. Jay Inslee will be joined by about 60 leaders from the business, economic development, education and local government communities as he kicks off a 9-day trade mission on August 28th.

CASTRO: This is a governor led trade mission to Korea and Japan. The delegates are going to represent a whole series of industry sectors from Washington State and like any trade mission the point of going along on a governor led trade mission is so that the representatives of these various industries can have some doors opened for them. That might not otherwise be available without the governors presence there.

That's Hector Castro from the Washington State Department of Ag who says agriculture is one of those industries being represented.

CASTRO: Derek Sandison, our director, will be going with the governor and we're going with representatives of various Washington State agriculture industries,the wine industry, the potato industry and blueberries. And like with any of the other delegates it's an opportunity to raise issues involving trade concerns and so forth and work towards improved market access for their products.

Both Korea and Japan are good trade markets for ag products.

CASTRO: This also gives us an opportunity to thank some of the people we are doing business with over in these countries, get a finer appreciation of what the consumer demand is like over there so that the various industry sectors can hone their marketing and make sure that they are addressing the concerns of the people in Japan and Korea who are purchasing our products.

And that's Washington Ag Today. I'm Greg Martin, thanks for listening on the Ag Information Network of the West.