Page 72 - Farm and Food Policy Strategies for 2040 Series

Schultz. “You have growing production and you want diversification of markets to take away the
shock of trade wars or unilateral action by one country.”

The U.S. is already the largest agriculture exporter in the world, selling its beef to Japan, its
oranges to Canada, and its wheat to Mexico, but where are the future markets to accommodate
the ever-increasing and higher-yielding production from America’s farms and ranches?

Here’s a snapshot from U.S. industry representatives who are staking the futures of their
producers on where the demand will be 20 years from now: The Saudis will be feeding their
cows with grains grown in Illinois and Iowa. Mexicans will be peeling juicy Californian oranges.
The Chinese will be dining on beef from Kansas cattle. Tanzanians will be importing Nebraskan
corn. The Koreans will be munching on crisp apples from Washington orchards. Bangladeshis
will be making T-shirts out of cotton from Texan fields. Zimbabweans will be dining on
chickens raised in Delaware.

Most of these countries buy
little or no farm commodities
from the U.S. now, but the
potential is there and that’s
why officials like USGC
President and CEO Tom
Sleight say they are starting to
plant the seeds of opportunity.

Africa

Tom Sleight, U.S. Grains Council People tend to wriggle their

eyebrows in skepticism when

Sleight talks about the massive

potential of the African
continent, but he doesn’t care.
He — and many others — see

a similarity in the dynamics at

work there that were present 20

or 30 years ago in China.

In other words, he sees massive market potential where there isn’t much now. “We see some real
opportunity there that needs to be massaged right now because it’s going to grow later on,”

Sleight told Agri-Pulse.

USGC, the U.S. Poultry and Egg Export Council and the U.S. Soybean Export Council are all
spending time and resources in Africa, especially in the more populous areas of East and West
Africa, where salaries and meat consumption are starting to rise. Corruption and poverty are still
ever-present in nations with governments that are still very wary of foreign goods that they see as
a threat to domestic producers, but all of that is conquerable, says Schultz.

And USGC is starting with the Tanzania poultry industry, showing producers in the largest
country in East Africa they can produce world-class eggs and chicken with the proper investment
and access to U.S. feed grains.

70 www.Agri-Pulse.com