Wisconsin Propelled into Top Ten by Ag Exports - Cowsmo

Wisconsin Propelled into Top Ten by Ag Exports

MADISON — An in­ter­na­tional de­mand for dairy prod­ucts, in­clud­ing bovine ge­net­ics, has pro­pelled Wis­con­sin into a top 10 rank­ing of states based on the value of agri­cul­tural ex­ports for 2014.

Last year proved to be a record-breaker, as Wis­con­sin ex­ported more than $3.6 bil­lion worth of agri­cul­tural prod­ucts to more than 145 coun­tries, ac­cord­ing to a re­port by of­fi­cials from the Wis­con­sin Depart­ment of Agri­cul­ture, Trade and Con­sumer Pro­tec­tion’s In­ter­na­tional Agribusi­ness Cen­ter.

A weak global econ­omy this year, how­ever, re­sulted in a 10 per­cent de­crease in the value of Wis­con­sin ag ex­ports for the first three quar­ters, the DATCP Board was told Dec. 16.

Jen Pino-Gal­lagher, bu­reau di­rec­tor of the DATCP’s ex­port cen­ter, said dairy is Wis­con­sin’s No. 1 agri­cul­tural ex­port cat­e­gory.

Com­pared to 10 years ago when Wis­con­sin agri­cul­tural ex­ports were more com­mod­ity based, she said, “To­day our prod­uct mix is much more di­verse.”

A global over­sup­ply of dairy com­bined with a strong U.S. dol­lar pose ex­port chal­lenges, she said.

“We have a strong dol­lar, which is mak­ing it more dif­fi­cult for buy­ers be­cause (U.S.) prod­ucts are more ex­pen­sive,” she said.

Agri­cul­tural prod­ucts ac­counted for 15 per­cent of the $23 bil­lion in ex­ports from Wis­con­sin in 2014.

Even though Wis­con­sin has ex­ported just more than $2.4 bil­lion in ag prod­ucts through Oc­to­ber to 136 coun­tries, it ac­tu­ally im­proved its U.S. rank­ing by two po­si­tions to No. 10 this year.

Mem­bers of the In­ter­na­tional Agribusi­ness Cen­ter team dis­cussed the role of the cen­ter in pro­mot­ing agri­cul­tural prod­ucts in for­eign mar­kets.

In some ways, the ex­port cen­ter is con­sid­ered “a hid­den gem,” Pino-Gal­lagher said.

She said the cen­ter con­tin­ues to em­pha­size the ser­vices it of­fers com­pa­nies on the “ins and outs” of ex­port­ing their prod­ucts, she said.

“We help com­pa­nies pro­mote their own prod­ucts and we also bring buy­ers in from other coun­tries,” she said.

Among the ser­vices are ex­porter ed­u­ca­tion, mar­ket ac­cess and mar­ket de­vel­op­ment and pro­mo­tion.

Last year the DATCP par­tic­i­pated in its largest trade mis­sion ever, when more than three dozen ex­porters, reg­u­la­tory of­fi­cials and jour­nal­ists went to China for an eight-day trade show.

Par­tic­i­pa­tion led to $5 mil­lion in ex­port sales for 10 Wis­con­sin com­pa­nies, she said.

Next year’s trade mis­sions will in­clude Mex­ico and the Mid­dle East, where the fo­cus will be on ex­port­ing live­stock feeds, she said.

The DATCP is one of the ex­porter part­ners, she said, be­cause ex­porters must work closely with reg­u­la­tors who is­sue ex­port cer­tifi­cates, such as those in dairy food safety.

The trade team works with Wis­con­sin firms to iden­tify ex­port op­por­tu­ni­ties by pro­vid­ing tech­ni­cal ex­per­tise and mar­ket de­vel­op­ment ini­tia­tives.

A re­cent de­vel­op­ment with the ex­port team work­ing with the U.S. Depart­ment of Agri­cul­ture has led to the open­ing up for the sale of live cat­tle ge­net­ics to the coun­try of Colom­bia, she said.

Among its ser­vices, the team an­a­lyzes client feed­back, global trends and mar­ket and ex­port data.

Based on the value of agri­cul­tural ex­ports last year, dairy and dairy de­riv­a­tives, in­clud­ing cheese, milk, whey, but­ter and lac­tose, ac­counted for $479 mil­lion in for­eign sales.

Round­ing out the top five were mis­cel­la­neous foods, such as sauces, yeasts and mus­tards; bev­er­ages such as de­na­tured ethanol and beer; raw fur skins from mink; and ce­real grains in­clud­ing corn, wheat and bar­ley.

Canada and Mex­ico re­main the two top des­ti­na­tions for Wis­con­sin agri­cul­tural prod­ucts, fol­lowed by China, Korea and Ja­pan.

Among the states, Wis­con­sin ranked first in the ex­port of bovine ge­net­ics, gin­seng roots, pre­pared and pre­served sweet corn, pick­les and cran­ber­ries.

Wis­con­sin ranked sec­ond in the ex­port of cheese, whey, sausages and mink fur skins.

By: Judy Brown
Source: The Country Today

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