Latin American farmers shop Illinois in reverse trade mission

October 2, 2008

Deborah Gertz Husar

Mexican dairy farmer Cuauhtemoc Reyes knew just what he wanted to see on a tour of the Illinois dairy industry.

“We come to the United States to see the best technology, installations, milking machines,” said Reyes, a farmer and sixth-grade teacher in West Calientas, a top milk-producing area. “We are looking for the best of the best.”

And he’s willing to buy some of what he sees to boost his family’s dairy operation milking 380 cows in central Mexico.

The Illinois Department of Agriculture organized two reverse trade missions that will bring 70 foreign buyers to the state to shop for agricultural products.

Thirty-two dairy producers and feed processors were recruited through the department’s Latin American trade office in Mexico City and primarily from Mexico and Colombia. They kicked off a three-day tour Wednesday in Quincy with stops at ADM Alliance Nutrition and Silver Creek Farm, where managing partner Jim Schluter milks 475 cows three times a day.

“We’re here basically to look at how the dairy industry’s doing here in the States and to see what new equipment or concentrates or technology is becoming available to dairy producers,” said Juan Gonzales, manager of a feed plant located in the outskirts of Medellin, Colombia.

At Silver Creek, the group toured the milking parlor, freestall barn, lagoon and feeding center. They posed for pictures, checked out a bale of hay and peppered Schluter with questions ranging from how much he feeds to how often he milks.

“They ask a lot of questions. We do the best we can and get out a calculator. Everything in the U.S. is pounds, bushels, gallons. They want to know liters, kilograms, hectares,” said Bobby Dowson with the department’s Bureau of Marketing and Promotion.

Dowson said the tour boosts export business for Illinois.

“They’re here to look at things that would make their operations better back home — genetics, feed ingredients, equipment, the newest technologies in any of those fields,” Dowson said.

Smaller dairy operations in central Mexico are looking to expand as “fluid milk consumption is increasing in Mexico as it is in most parts of the world,” Dowson said. “They’ve got monies to buy genetics and inputs to expand. They don’t have the environmental regulations we do here. They can expand and increase easier than when we try to do that here in Illinois.”

Wednesday’s second stop at ADM Alliance Nutrition’s production plant helped promote that business and boost awareness among potential international customers.

“Hopefully there will be opportunities down the road,” said Steve Dale, vice president, international for ADM Alliance Nutrition.

Some existing customers were in the tour group thanks to a joint venture between ADM and the largest poultry producer in Mexico. The business, Vimifos, sells vitamin premixes and is the largest shrimp feed manufacturer in Mexico.

“The international business has been good recently. The value of the dollar, it’s been weaker, which makes our exports more competitive,” Dale said. “The joint venture business for us is very important, a very good business, a very strong business.”

The group visits the University of Illinois Dairy Farm today and the Chicago Board of Trade on Friday before heading to the World Dairy Expo in Madison, Wis.

The second trade mission, scheduled for Oct. 6-9, will demonstrate the state’s vast grain production and distribution capabilities. Tour stops include the National Corn-to- Ethanol Research Center in Edwardsville, grain farms in Auburn and Champaign, and an Assumption firm that produces grain storage products.

“Our goal is to turn one-time visitors into long-term customers and increase agricultural exports,” Tom Jennings, acting agriculture director, said in a news release. “Agriculture is Illinois’ top industry, and much of its success is owed to foreign trade.”

Illinois, with sales of $3.8 billion, ranks as the fourth leading agricultural exporter in the U.S.