A U.S. Trade Mission to Southeast Asia

With your Southeast Regional Ag News, I am Haylie Shipp. This is the Ag Information Network.

USDA Undersecretary for Trade and Foreign Agricultural Affairs Alexis Taylor recently led a trade mission to southeast Asia. The trip included stops in Malaysia and Singapore. Taylor says it was a productive trip for everyone involved…

“One of the things I wanted to highlight is just the quality of meetings. I know our business has had this week. We've had over 300 business-to-business meetings, but I think more impactful is the quality of those meetings and the interest of the buyers that I heard from our businesses. One of the reasons we focus trade missions here or continue to focus some of our trade missions here is the population dynamics that we are seeing. They have a growing middle class.”

One of the folks on that trip, Ag Secretary Karen Ross of California says that Southeast Asia is an important market for her state’s farmers which I might add plays well for us here in the southeast…

“Fresh fruits, especially citrus, grapes, and berries are products that we've seen on the shelves, as well as tree nuts. And we have the walnut commission with us, which was very important for a commodity that's been struggling the last couple of years.”

From Undersecretary Taylor, “There is a strong connection to the United States and a preference for U.S. food and agricultural products. There's a lot of trust in our quality, safety, and reliability as a trading partner, which makes this a very attractive set of markets.”