japan

The past four years have been tremendously positive for America’s efforts to export more agricultural goods and products around the world.

The brand of American agriculture is soaring worldwide. In fact, 2009 to 2012 represents the best four years in our nation’s history for agricultural exports. Exports have grown more than 50% over that period of time.

We have reason to believe that more good news is ahead. Recently, USDA economists forecast agricultural product exports for next year to exceed $145 billion. That would set yet another new record – and it would allow agricultural exports to continue supporting more than a million jobs.

Working in the dirt is no big deal for 4-H member Josh Tice. However, it’s not every day he gets invited to help First Lady Michelle Obama plant a cherry blossom tree in honor of the 100^th anniversary of Japan’s gift to the United States.

Josh, and his mom and dad, Deana and Josiah, were on hand last Tuesday for the event in Washington, DC. Josh was one of six young people selected to participate alongside the First Lady. During the event, Josh was able to meet Mrs. Obama and even give her a hug. Naturally though, his 4-H side shined through as he said his favorite part of the event was scooping up dirt for the actual planting.

Helping U.S. exporters tap into Japan’s $670 billion food market is a top priority for the Foreign Agricultural Service’s Agricultural Trade Office (ATO) in Japan. One way we do this is by organizing the USA Pavilion at FOODEX Japan, the largest food and beverage trade show in Asia. This year’s show, which was held March 6-9, drew 74,000-plus attendees, not just from Japan but also from other Asian markets including Korea, Taiwan, China, Thailand and Hong Kong.

The USA Pavilion was one of the largest at the show, featuring more than 70 U.S. companies and a wide range of “Made in America” products, including meat and seafood, fresh produce, wine and specialty snack foods. Participants had an opportunity to showcase their wares to key decision-makers from restaurants, supermarkets, wholesalers, grocery stores, foodservice and hospitality companies, fast food chains and convenience stores, as well as distributors, agents and brokers.

Travis Forgues is an organic dairy farmer in the town of Alburgh in northwest Vermont, almost at the Canadian border and surrounded on three sides by Lake Champlain. Like many of the other dairy farmers in northern Vermont, Travis is a realist. He went to college. He tried city life. But he was born into farming, and that’s how he wanted to raise his own family. So Travis went to his dad and had a talk about organic farming, and he convinced his father, and then many others, to convert their land from conventional agricultural practices to organic. As Travis saw it, organics was a growing niche within American agriculture, and consumer demand for organically produced dairy was taking off. Better still, consumers were willing to pay more for organic products. Today, as a result of Travis’ work, nearly 130 dairy farmers across New England have signed on to the “New England Pastures” organic dairy cooperative for Organic Valley.

Japanese customers savored restaurant dining created with quality American food ingredients as part of the first-ever “Taste of America” promotion hosted this month by the U.S. Agricultural Trade Office (ATO) in Tokyo.

Helping American farmers, ranchers and agribusinesses gain and maintain access to international markets is one of the most important roles of USDA’s Foreign Agricultural Service (FAS).

With assistance from USDA’s Market Access Program (MAP) and working with Food Export-Midwest, a Milwaukee-based company has expanded its access to the Asian market for its brand of specialty cookies. Nikki’s Cookies & Confections has been baking a full line of shortbreads, chocolate layered cookies and holiday specialty products for 25 years. The company’s export success was recently recognized in the National Export Strategy Report, an annual update on the National Export Initiative progress. Under this initiative President Obama set a goal of doubling overall U.S. exports by the end of 2014.

The devastating earthquake and tsunami that struck Japan on March 11 claimed the lives of over 13,000 people and left nearly 150,000 homeless.

During the third day of his visit to Japan, Agriculture Secretary Vilsack had another packed day – starting with a successful bilateral meeting with his Japanese counterpart, and concluding with a series of events commemorating the 50^th anniversary of a 1959 ‘hog lift’ in which Iowa farmers sent 36 hogs to Yamanashi, Japan.

This week, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack left the beauty of a cherry blossom adorned nation’s capital to travel to the origin of the beautiful pink and white flowered trees—Japan (where one finds even larger crowds of tourists, amateur photographers, and general admirers of the cherry blossom trees than along Washington DC’s tidal basin this time of the year). Vilsack is in Japan to highlight the outstanding partnership that exists between the United States and Japan, and to promote U.S. agricultural exports, as part of President Obama’s efforts to expand U.S. exports under the National Export Initiative.