Minnesotan agriculture leaders to join USDA trade trip to Philippines

A group of agriculture ambassadors from around the country — including several representatives from Minnesota — will land in Manila next week for a three-day trade mission to the Philippines.

A key priority for Minnesota Agriculture Department Commissioner Thom Petersen is asking his Filipino counterparts to prevent tariff rate hikes, such as those recently eased on imports of pork and corn.

"These connections really do help open doors," Petersen told the Star Tribune on Friday.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture is sponsoring the trip to the Philippines, the eighth-largest export market for U.S. agricultural products. The Biden administration's Foreign Agricultural Service Administrator Daniel Whitley is also attending.

Commodity groups include representatives of Minnesota's wheat, corn and soybean industries. Petersen will be joined by statewide agricultural directors from Nebraska, South Dakota and Virginia.

In a statement announcing the trip, Charlie Vogel, executive director of Minnesota Wheat Research & Promotion Council, called the Philippines "one of the region's most reliable and dedicated customers."

Petersen and other Minnesota commodity representatives joined a trade mission in November to the United Kingdom, where they met with the U.K.'s trade minister, Penny Mordaunt. Since then, Mordaunt has become one of the top names in the Conservative Party to replace outgoing Prime Minister Boris Johnson.

"She spent an hour and a half with us," said Petersen, noting such meet-ups can be long-term wins for Minnesota agriculture. "We're all kind of rooting for her."

Petersen also pointed to scenes this summer of cargo ships in the Duluth harbor filled with kidney beans embarking for Europe — an outgrowth, he said, of a trade mission to the continent in 2021. On that trip, he and Gov. Tim Walz met with interested buyers from Europe.

"They were really excited about the port of Duluth," said the ag commissioner.