An Iowa trade delegation will leave for Vietnam Friday in hopes of boosting exports. The executive director of the Iowa Pork Producers Association, Rich Degner, will be on the trip and says they already have massive pork sales abroad.
“We have pork packing plants all across the state of Iowa and almost all of them are involved in exporting. We don’t talk about it a great publicly, but there’s $1.5-billion of pork being exported globally from Iowa. That’s a lot of pork,” Degner says. The pork delegates have scheduled in-country briefings and will survey everything from traditional markets to the gourmet and hotel industries.
The Japanese buy more Iowa pork than any other country, and Degner says there is a lot of room for growth in Vietnam. “The Asian community they’re great friends of ours because they like pork, we have quite a bit of room for growth, hopefully as the TPP the Trans Pacific Partnership comes about we can increase our trade with Vietnam,” Degner says.
Along with the pork, the Iowans will try to market other agricultural products and used trucks. Iowa Lieutenant Governor Kim Reynolds will lead the 10-day trade mission of about 20 business and state officials.
The delegation will also size up new business opportunities in the Philippines before returning home next month.