Agricultural Leaders Visit South Korea on Trade Mission
Agricultural leaders are back from a week-long trade mission overseas. Under Secretary for Trade and Foreign Agricultural Affairs, Alexis M. Taylor led the South Korea trade mission, which included representatives from 49 U.S. companies and organiza…
Agricultural leaders are back from a week-long trade mission overseas. Under Secretary for Trade and Foreign Agricultural Affairs, Alexis M. Taylor led the South Korea trade mission, which included representatives from 49 U.S. companies and organizations.
"U.S. food and agricultural products are really recognized by South Korean consumers and importers for their reliability, their quality, and their sustainability as well. South Korean consumers really value food safety and what they're choosing to eat in the U.S. brand has really strong safety associated with it," she said in a call with ag media. "The top five U.S. agricultural exports related to Korea were beef, pork, seafood, wheat, dried distillers' grain or DDGs and food preparation. But we also see a lot of diversity going into that market."
She said there was strong interest in U.S. fruit and vegetables, nuts, dairy and eggs, coffee, and distilled spirits. Pet foods and consumer-packaged goods like condiments and sauces were also on the list.
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"At USDA, we are really focused on market diversification and opening doors, helping build relationships for U.S. food and agricultural exporters and our industries and markets all over the world. And I think Korea being our fifth largest market is really key to that market diversification work," she said.
Taylor said it was one of several trade missions planned for the year, with the next being at the end of this month in India.
"I'm really excited. We have a strong U.S. delegation already signed up to go to India. Last year the Biden-Harris administration was able to reduce tariffs on roughly 10 products in India in the food and ag space [including] a lot of our specialty crops," Taylor said. "So, we're excited to be taking food and agricultural businesses back to begin the process of rebuilding back to those consumers and rebuilding that market share." You can learn more about upcoming trade missions on the USDA website.
Sabrina Halvorson National Correspondent / AgNet Media, Inc.
Sabrina Halvorson is an award-winning journalist, broadcaster, and public speaker who specializes in agriculture. She primarily reports on legislative issues and hosts The AgNet Weekly podcast. Sabrina is a native of California's agriculture-rich Central Valley.
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