Taylor Encouraged Trade Mission Wil Benefit NW Growers

It was an effort to export more of what’s grown in the Northwest and sell it to customers in SE Asia.  Washington leads the northwest with millions of dollars of food and agriculture exports to Vietnam such as apples, dairy, wheat along with fish and seafood.  However, following the recent USDA led trade mission to Vietnam, there’s hope to export even more to that region.

"Think about cherries and blueberries and apples and pears," said USDA Under Secretary for Trade Alexis Taylor. "You know, a lot of their harvest season kind of comes online as California is going offline. And so, it's really complementary to just continue to get more us through in that market.”

She noted there are other agriculture exports such as livestock products.

“They're expanding their own domestic livestock production, which gives us an opportunity on both the genetics side but also the feed and green bean side, but then also on the opportunity to export, you know more beef, pork, poultry as well to help meet that demand,” Taylor said.

She pointed out that the U.S. is Vietnam's 3rd largest food supplier and there’s growing demand for higher value exports.

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