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US trade delegation meets with Spain, Portugal

A trade mission to Spain is allowing USDA officials to seek expanded export opportunities.

Clay Hamilton is the Associate Administrator of the USDA’s Foreign Ag Service.

“We’ve been able to pull together meetings with buyers that we know are interested in our companies,” he said during a press call Thursday. “It’s a lot more simpler and more direct.”

More than 70 representatives from US food and agriculture sectors joined the trade mission.

Hamilton says Spain’s Ministry of Agriculture has been receptive to policy discussions.

“We share a lot of the same issues,” Hamilton said. “They have droughts here too and their farmers are facing a lot of the issues that we are. We talked about the need to address climate change and I was able to talk about our climate-smart commodity programs.”

He says US exporters have also been meeting with buyers from nearby Portugal.