It’s one thing to read about it, but it’s another thing to travel across the ocean and experience it for yourself. That’s why Jackie Ponder, an Indiana farmer who raises pigs, corn and soybeans, decided to join the Indiana Soybean Alliance and Indiana Corn Marketing Council’s trade mission to Vietnam in September which focused on the benefits of U.S. pork and high oleic soybean cooking oil.
“I think it's important for producers to be involved in these trade missions,” Ponder says. “There’s no doubt we hear a lot of great presentations from the National Pork Producers Council and National Pork Board about international markets. But it's another thing to go over and see what the competition is like. How is our pork being presented? How important is pork to this country?”
Understanding how important pork is to Vietnam and to their diets opened her eyes to the value her investments have on export opportunities. Ponder, a member of the NPPC Strategic Investment Program (SIP) and Long-Range Strategic Planning Committee, is interested in helping legislators and producers understand key pork issues.
“We all know the dollars and cents benefit of exports – it’s a big chunk of the money we get per pig,” Ponder says. “I know the National Pork Board has been doing a really good job and working very hard on increasing domestic consumer demand. But there's only so many people in the U.S. and even if we increase consumption, we're not going to match what we could get with increased exports. I see investment not just in the National Pork Board, but also in the National Pork Producers Council critically important for me as a producer because it matters how much I can sell my pigs for.”
While in Vietnam on a USDA trade mission, the U.S. Meat Export Federation (USMEF) brought together representatives from the National Pork Board as well as the Indiana Soybean Alliance and Corn Marketing Council delegation to continue building relationships in the Vietnamese market.
Over the past several years, Vietnam’s domestic pork industry has been hampered by outbreaks of African swine fever, which have created new opportunities for imported pork demand.
“This is a great case where it's important to be present, to be brand ambassadors for U.S. pork and our other commodities,” says Courtney Knupp, National Pork Board vice president of international market development. “It was one of the largest trade missions for the USDA. We're talking all commodities, which shows a full court press of U.S. agriculture, the interest in the region and in Vietnam, especially a country where we have such historical ties, which has led to relationship building for decades.”
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