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Colombia meat product showcase builds important relationships

Pork producer Everett Forkner tells Brownfield he looks for increasing pork and beef trade with Latin American countries.  Forkner – from Missouri – represents the National Pork Board on a U.S. Meat Export Federation Latin America Product Showcase in Colombia.  He’s personally marketed swine seedstock to 25 countries and says economic development in Central and South America has created greater buying power for people there.

“I think we’re on the cusp on the beginning cutting edge of more of this kind of activity and more trade going forward than we’ve seen even the past,” Forkner told Brownfield Ag News Thursday from Cartagena, Colombia.

Important relationships are formed during the showcase for doing future business on behalf of U.S. pork and beef producers, according to Forkner.

“A lot of this market is through traders and the trading companies instead of direct sales like many of our packer/processors do,” said Forkner, “so it’s a unique setting, but one that I think offers a lot of opportunity to build those relationships.”

Thursday was the final day of the showcase.

AUDIO: Everett Forkner (10 min. MP3)