DODGE COUNTY, Minn. - A trade delegation from Japan spent Aug. 9 learning more about Minnesota agriculture.
The delegation of five: Kenta Kanemaki, a pork buyer for OK Store; Ryuichi Ohshio, director of Comodi Iida; Hiroyuki Takahasi, pork buyer for Kasumi Processing Center; Akihide Tomida, pork buyer of Marunak, and Satoshi Kato from the United States Meat Export Federation
started their day at the Minnesota Soybean and Minnesota Pork offices in Mankato before visiting the Bruce Schmoll crop farm outside Claremont and the Interstate Mills feed mill in Hayfield.
They seemed interested in soaking up as much information as they could during their short visit. They asked questions, jotting notes in notebooks, and snapped photographs of Schmoll's shiny green equipment, the equipment in the feed mill and just about everything rural Minnesotans take for granted.
One of the Japanese visitors said through interpreter Kato that he was very impressed by the scale of United States agriculture. Everything was so huge compared to Japan.
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In Japan, a soybean field would be the size of the dining room at the Oaks Bar and Grill, Kato said.
It was the first time the visitor was able to get out to touch and feel a field of soybeans. They were also able to feel and taste soybeans and corn from Schmoll's recently cleaned out bins.
The trip was paid for with soybean checkoff dollars paid by Minnesota's soybean farmers.
"The livestock industry is our No. 1 customer," said Joel Schreurs of Tyler, a Minnesota Soybean Growers Association board member, who co-chairs the international marketing committee.
By promoting Minnesota pork, the soybean checkoff is promoting a value-added product for the state's soybean growers, he said.
"We're promoting Minnesota soybeans too," said Paul Simonsen of Fairfax, treasurer for the Minnesota Soybean Research and Promotion Council and co-chair of the international marketing committee.
Raising livestock here generates additional economic activity and jobs in Minnesota. The group's itinerary included a visit to an pork farm in Iowa where they were going to shower in and shower out. The stop was planned to meet biosecurity requirements.
The United States trip also included stops at Indiana Packers Corporation, JBS in Iowa, Triumph Foods in Missouri and Tyson in Iowa before departing Chicago for Japan on Aug. 13. The group arrived in Chicago on Aug. 7.
