07/09/07 Ag and the governor's Mexican trade mission

Washington Ag July 9, 2007 Eleven of the 51 member delegation Governor Chris Gregoire is leading to Mexico this week represent Washington agriculture. Valoria Loveland, Director of the Washington State Department of Agriculture is heading up that group. Loveland: "We will cover apples, cherries, potatoes, wine and for the first time we are going to have dairy travel with us on a trade mission. So I am excited about that." The delegation will be putting on five promotional events for Washington products in Mexico City and Guadalajara. Governor Gregoire acknowledges that Mexico has occasionally thrown up barriers to agricultural trade and Director Loveland says that's why missions like this are important for establishing relationships. Loveland: "When we do have these issues that the governor mentioned, that we know one another and have an opportunity to sit down and talk about things and see if we can resolve them before they become large issues." According to state government agencies Mexican companies purchased 207 million dollars in food and agricultural products from Washington last year and that included 128 million dollars for apples. The governor says Mexico is now the state's tenth largest overall trading partner. I'm Bob Hoff.