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IOWA SOYBEAN FARMERS HOST INTERNATIONAL VISITORS BY JOSEPH HOPPER, KRISS NELSON AND JEFF HUTTON
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owa Soybean Association (ISA) farmer-members welcomed visitors from across the globe to their farms ahead of harvest. The visits were facilitated by the U.S. Soybean Export Council (USSEC) and hosted by ISA, which welcomes visitors to the state year-round. These international trade teams are typically comprised of business professionals involved in the soybean industry. “It’s important to build relationships because relationships matter when doing business,” says Grant Kimberley, senior director of market development at ISA. “People want to do business with people they know and understand how we grow our crops and the care we take with it.”
The first team to make their visit in the summer hailed from The Maghreb, the northwest region of Africa which includes the countries of Algeria, Libya, Morocco, Tunisia and Mauritania. Roger Van Ersvelde, who farms near Brooklyn, showed off his equipment, storage and examined the crops growing in the field. “I love showing what we can do in production agriculture, how we’re doing things that are positive for the environment and positive for the world by producing the amount of food we can for them,” Van Ersvelde says. Traveling from Algeria across the Atlantic Ocean and to Iowa, Abdelkader Khider, of the Khider Group, was all smiles during the
International trade teams visited Iowa Soybean Association District 4 Director Marty Danzer and his family’s farm in rural Carroll County earlier this year. Photo by Jeff Hutton.
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visit. He said the on-farm visit was an exciting experience and he enjoyed learning about the varieties of crops grown in Iowa as well as the high-tech equipment used on the farm. “I’m very happy, to see how you grow crops here and also in terms of harvesting,” says Khider. “I do believe that the equipment that you have here is better than ours.”
International dialog Teams continued to make their way onto Iowa farms through the month of August. Delegates from Japan and South Korea visited ISA District 4 Director Marty Danzer’s farm in Carroll County. ISA District 1 Director Brent Swart, former ISA Director
Danzer showcased his farming operation to visitors f rom Japan and South Korea. Photo by Jeff Hutton.
