I don’t know where summer has gone! Kevin took this trip back in June and now here it is almost August! Sorry it took me so long to put this on here, but here it is! It was a very interesting, educational and enlightening trip for him. I know he’d do it again in a heartbeat (and I’d love to go with him next time!).
WORLDS OF OPPORTUNITIES FOR FARMERS AND AGRICULTURE
By Kevin Ross
Recently I received an invitation to participate in the Iowa Governor’s Trade Mission to South Korea and China. Needless to say, I jumped at the chance and was very excited to see what was in store for me in the Far East. We had a briefing/pre-trip meet and greet at the office of the Iowa Department of Economic Development. It was there where I first realized the caliber of people that were going to be on this great adventure with me. The trip was set for June 6-19 with a couple days in South Korea, but the majority of the traveling was going to be within China.
The week before the trip was set to happen, Governor Terry Branstad had to cancel because of the inability to reach an agreement on the state budget. The state government takes precedence over diplomacy and market development so the mission was to be led by the Lt. Governor instead. This would be the first trade delegation for Lt. Governor Kim Reynolds to lead and she mentioned she was a bit nervous. Iowa Secretary of Agriculture Bill Northey was also scheduled to lead portions of the trip because of the large agricultural focus. The rest of the delegation included the Iowa Department of Economic Development Director, the Iowa Workforce Development Director, two Representatives from the Iowa Legislature including the House Ag Committee Chair and Presidents or Chairs of each major commodity association in Iowa including Iowa Corn, Iowa Soybean, Iowa Farm Bureau, Iowa Cattlemen and Iowa Pork Producers. Some Iowa businesses were also represented because they were either already working in international markets or looking to start commerce there.
We landed in Seoul, South Korea on the 7th of June and found Seoul to be an extremely westernized city. If it weren’t for the symbols on the street signs along with the English, a person would not have known they were in a foreign country. It was very clean, safe and overall felt a lot like a west coast city to me. The people were very friendly with a fair amount either speaking English or at least understanding it. We met with US Embassy officials and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFAT). A luncheon was held with many South Korean oil seed and feed grain industry businesses. There we answered many questions about our current crop acres, crop conditions, DDGS (Dried Distiller Grains), GMO (Genetically Modified Organism) and biofuel, to name a few. We assured them we would have adequate supplies and that their markets are a very important part of our agricultural system. The Cattle and Pork industries had an afternoon of media interviews and promotion to tell about our quality products and our animal husbandry techniques. These representatives stayed in South Korea for a few more days to help continue building markets and working with the US Meat Export Federation to achieve better access. There was an industry reception the last night we were Seoul and some major business connections were made. 
The main message we took from South Korea is to get the Free Trade Agreement passed. The European Union’s FTA was set to take effect July 1 and after that we would begin to lose market share. It is tough to argue with that logic and the KORUS (Korea/US) agreement will be very beneficial to US agricultural products. Our time in Korea was very short and therefore I cannot comment on much of the country, although Seoul is amazing and I would recommend a visit for anyone.
The delegation moved to China on June 9th. We arrived in Beijing and promptly took a bus to the province of Hebei. The trip was about four hours with the enjoyable experience of a Chinese truck stop along the way. I placed a bet with Steve Brody of Pioneer to see who could find the most interesting type of truck stop fare. I came out with a pickled chicken foot and Steve came out with pickled pigeon eggs with brown and black speckled shells. The stipulation was one had to eat whatever they bought. I watched Steve down his, but must not have paid attention when he took the shell off. Therefore when I ate one of the eggs I skipped that part and after being laughed at and getting some shell out of my teeth I paid the man his winnings. I decided he won by default for my lack of pigeon egg eating knowledge. The foot was actually not too bad either.
In Shijiazhuang, China I began my true education of the culture, land and people. We met with the Foreign Affairs Office (FAO) there along with the Hebei Ag Department and Animal Husbandry Bureau, while others visited with city officials, workforce training and saw some infrastructure projects. This province became an Iowa Sister State in 1983 and was visited by Governor Branstad in 1984. It was obvious the impression he made then as there was true disappointment that he was not able to return with us on the trip. Needless to say the Lt. Governor did a fabulous job filling in for him throughout the trip. After a day full of meetings, working luncheon and an amazing dinner, their vice governor hosted a reception that evening for our delegation.
We departed for Beijing in the morning via bus again. The traffic was not too bad and this was a great chance to see the countryside.
Many farms are similar to our own here, but with little, if any, grain storage. I learned that 90% of their corn is still harvested by hand with much being dried on the ear and stored on the roofs of the houses after harvest. I guess it is quite a site and beautiful to see from the air. Also, much is planted yet by hand with many different mechanisms and even some done in the old hill style where you would plant three seeds and weed out two if they all came up. Their grading/sizing of seed is an issue so planters as we know them today would have a very difficult time with accuracy anyway.
There are roughly 1.3 billion people in China and 300-400 million are employed by agriculture and farming. For a country that is slightly larger than the US they have nearly our total population working in agriculture alone. Finding employees is not much of an issue. Land is all owned by the government with long term leases to the farmers and property owners. 30-100 year leases are not uncommon although if the government wants your land for something I am certain the lease is rudely terminated. Most farmers have 2-3 acres or they have certain rows in a larger field that are theirs. In some other parts of China there are State Farms with all the latest technology and that are highly efficient. The seed industry is also interesting with Pioneer Hybrids having about a 10% market share in seed corn and all other companies averaging near 1% or less. There are nearly 200 such companies in the nation. Interestingly they do have major issues with stealing of technology and research. R&D (Research and Development) was humorously referred to in China as Receive and Duplicate. Seriously though, the farms we passed had many primitive greenhouses and the corn and wheat looked to be very good quality.
We arrived back in Beijing and since it was a weekend we were given the chance to see some sights within the city. The group traveled to Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden City, both of which were amazing. The Agricultural Delegation had a dinner that evening with many companies from China being represented. Sunday morning we went to see The Great Wall. Unbelievable the amount of man hours it must have taken to construct a wall 3000 miles long. We obviously saw only a small portion but very impressive to say the least. After seeing the wall I considered the phrase mentioned when we dig a deep hole “You’re digging all the way to China.” I don’t think I would ever try, but I am not so sure the Chinese couldn’t make it happen. 
That evening we departed for Shenyang, China via air. The next day was very busy with a briefing by the US Embassy and US foreign affairs officials. The Vice Governor of the Liaoning province together with many of their officials welcomed us and attended the meeting. Keep in mind that all meetings take much longer than they normally would to get the same amount of business done. The interpreters did a fabulous job especially when dealing with some technical terms that are probably difficult to put into any language let alone Chinese. This all takes time and patience while allowing time to study the other people in the room and read body language. After another trade promotion luncheon and networking session, some of the group departed for a wind farm while others and myself had the chance to visit a dairy processing facility. Huishan Dairy owns about 30,000 cows and is planning to expand, nearly tripling that number in the two years. The demand for dairy products is huge and ever increasing with a society gaining in middle class numbers. From there we departed for a BBQ reception at the US Consulate Generals Residence. I may have forgotten my passport at the hotel, but luckily my trusty old Iowa driver’s license did the trick to get me in there. It seemed to make sense because had I lost my passport that is where I would have gone to get a new one anyway. The BBQ was great! Finally a beer that was ice cold instead of barely chilled! They served burgers and some phenomenal lamb skewers. I also found it very interesting that it was one of the only places I saw something that resembled a lawn. Otherwise all available land is used for crop production of some type. I truly mean everything. A company trying to sell lawn equipment there wouldn’t last long.
On Tuesday morning we visited a Pioneer research facility in Tieling and spent some time with Dr. Bill Niebur head of the China Operations and Senior Officer for the company. The facility was just like you picked it up and moved it from the Midwest. Even the soil type was similar to my farm at home. They seem to have a pretty good handle on all the different dynamics of building a company in China and how to conduct business. Our next destination was a flight to Harbin, China.
Our schedule in Harbin changed a minimum of ten times before we got there. I think some people were rather stressed by the time we got there! The city is in the Northeast part of China and has a large amount of Russian influence. Domed buildings and some Russian is spoken there and even some restaurants served their cultural items. Harbin has an amazing river walk area and overall was a gorgeous city I would love to go back and explore.
Wednesday morning we had a short hour to visit a version of their farm progress show. It was much more diverse than our row crop and livestock Midwestern type, but similar to the World Ag Expo in Tularie, CA I would assume. We then had another Iowa Promotion luncheon, creating avenues for trade and business with both China and Iowa/US. We later visited the headquarters for the State Farm I mentioned earlier. After that, we departed for a flight back to Beijing, and who would have guessed they have air delays in China also. We arrived at our hotel after 1am that night. Many of the group was very tired the next day when we went to visit another Iowa manufacturing company doing business in China, Vermeer. Many of you know Vermeer because of their haying equipment, but they also have various wood chipping, directional boring machines and grinding types of products to name a few. Their facility was very impressive and it was obvious they had taken their whole process and regulations straight from US plants to China. Next, we met with the Beijing Ministry of Ag and had another luncheon, this time hosted by the Chinese People’s Association for Friendship with Foreign Countries. (Say that three times fast.) We had a short meeting with the China Insurance Regulatory Commission in the afternoon and a short briefing and question and answer session with the US Embassy Foreign Agricultural Service. This was the end of the trip for the majority of the people and a reception with many Chinese and American guests was held. It was a great way to end the official part of the delegation. The Secretary of Ag and those of us representing the corn industry stayed for another day of meetings. Our small group of five visited a hog processing facility that processed three million hogs a year and the Flower Port in Beijing. The Flower Port is basically a huge garden of roughly 600 acres and a horticultural center with around 50 acres of state-of-the-art greenhouses cooled and heated by a large geothermal system. Having been conceived only four years ago but built to completion in two, it is truly an amazing place to visit. We had lunch and I tried scorpions for the first time. I have to say they weren’t half bad.
A meeting with our delegation and the mayor of Beijing went very well in the afternoon and I am anxious to see what positive things come from that interaction in the future. An informal supper meeting was held with a university president that night. Actually he was president of roughly seven universities. Not a bad guy to share a toast with.
On our last day in China we got to do a bit of sight-seeing and visited the Olympic village, the Summer Palace and made a quick run to the Silk Market. I decided that if I ever have to hire people for their negotiating skills I am going to send them to the Silk Market and see which one returns with the most stuff for fifty dollars. It will test your patience, your resolve and your people skills. It was a lot of fun, but annoying at the same time. They will literally pull you into their stores to look at their items.
South Korea and China are two very different countries, each with many opportunities for agriculture. Whether it is trade, feed, oil seeds, processing, equipment, vaccines, etc, there is much to learn and gain from these relationships. I was amazed at the amount of infrastructure being built and also at the skyscrapers going up in China. It is truly changing fast and I am certain it will be very different by the next time I get back to visit. Because of censorship, there is still kind of a black hole of technology. They have much of the same technologies we have yet our working systems are different and websites are blocked like Facebook and Twitter. If it weren’t for things like censorship and the government ownership of the land it would be very difficult to look at it as a communist society. There are many there who see that changing very soon.
The trip was a whirlwind of travel and meetings, but well worth it. After two weeks away I was certainly ready to get back home to see Sara and Hudson. I arrived home on Father’s Day at about 10:30pm to find my tired little man (kept awake by mom) able to say “dada” for the first time. No doubt a special moment in my life I won’t forget, along with a life-altering trip to the Far East.
Pictures courtesy of Lt. Governor Kim Reynolds’ Iowa Department of Agriculture’s Photostream on Flickr.com
It was nice to visit him
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