The Vietnamese Ambassador to the United States and his staff spent the day in Madison yesterday. Wisconsin Ag Secretary Ben Brancel hosted two sessions with the Ambassador and ag company and association representatives to discuss strengthening the growing relationship between the state and the Southeastern Asian country. The group discussed the opportunities for Wisconsin to export dairy products, grains, animal feed, livestock genetics, technology and ginseng to Vietnam.
Vietnam’s economic growth is second only to China in that part of the world. Secretary Brancel visited Vietnam last January to learn more about market opportunities, he says Monday’s meetings “offered valuable information and a chance to continue these initial discussions.”
In the meeting, Secretary Brancel announced that Wisconsin and Vietnam will continue to work together this fall as two Vietnamese feed buyers will attend the Asian Feed Buyers Mission to World Dairy Expo. Representatives from TH Milk and Nova Trading will travel to Madison from Vietnam to meet one-on-one with Wisconsin and Midwest feed exporters in hopes of developing new business relationships.
In 2011, Wisconsin exported $39 million of agricultural products to Vietnam, an increase of 55% over 2010. Current top agricultural exports to Vietnam from Wisconsin include soybeans, animal feed, hides and skins, dairy-related products and sugars.
Representatives from World Dairy Expo, the Wisconsin Corn Growers’ Association, the DeLong Company, Wisconsin Soybean Marketing Board, Genex Cooperative Inc., Great Lakes Bio Systems and Wisconsin Ginseng Board attended the meeting. In addition to Ambassador Nguyen Quoc Cuong, Vietnamese participants included Counselor Le Chi Dzung, Pham Thi Thanh Binh and Counselor Nguyen Hong Ha.
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