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Long-term view to short-term trade uncertainty

A southwest Minnesota pig farmer says with so much trade uncertainty right now, it’s important to have a long-term vision.

Randy Spronk of Pipestone tells Brownfield gaining global market-share is not typically done month-by-month or even year-by-year, but decade-by-decade.

“I paraphrased to somebody that when I pour concrete to invest in a facility, that’s a long-term investment.  And I think that’s the way we need to look at it.  These are long-term opportunities that we need to look at.  We’re not going to worry about what’s going to happen in the next month or two.  We just want to have long-term (opportunities) to open these markets up.”

A past president of the National Pork Producers Council, Spronk says current trade impediments can’t erase the competitive advantages enjoyed by the U.S.

“If you look at our cost-of-production and what we do as producers in the United States because of our abundant feed supplies, we are very competitive.  And we’ve got a safe product, an economical product, and they want our product.”

He says the U.S. can provide foreign markets with the products they want in a format they need as good as any country in the world.