State Leaders Announce New Agricultural Marketing Platform, Efforts to Expand Global Trade

Aug. 31, 2020, 4 p.m. ·

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Nebraska Department of Agriculture Director Steve Wellman (Photo by Fred Knapp, NET News)

On Monday, the Nebraska Department of Agriculture unveiled a new marketing initiative geared toward Nebraska's agricultural sector.


The program, “Nebraska Straight from the Good Life,” features a statewide catalog of agriculture businesses, including bulk grain producers, livestock, food processing, and equipment.

The move comes as part of a push by state leaders to expand Nebraska's global trade prowess after a chaotic few years, though exports were already a large source of income for the state: according to the USDA, Nebraska sold $6.8 billion in ag exports in 2018. Between widespread flooding in 2019, trade conflict with China, chronically low prices, and supply chain disruptions due to the coronavirus pandemic, Governor Pete Ricketts says finding new export arenas for Nebraska's producers is key to keeping farms in business.

"For example, last year we went to Vietnam, and we were able to meet with a number of folks to be able to promote Nebraska products," he said. A delegation of trade representatives from Vietnam later visited Nebraska and signed a memorandum of understanding to purchase roughly $3 billion in agricultural goods over the coming years. "So when we go places and really develop those relationships, we can expand what we're doing with those countries."

(Photo by Fred Knapp, NET News)

Ricketts later commented that beef exports from Nebraska to Vietnam are up 56 percent this year, with pork imports soaring 84 percent, despite nationwide supply chain struggles stemming from COVID-19. Ricketts said Nebraska is also the main distributor of beef to the European Union,

making up 56 percent of their total beef imports

.

"This will be mostly electronic, but we can make printed copies ... each company gets one page dedicated to their company, they can provide all the information that they want to," he said.