Extended courting pays off - Newsline - New Vision Co-op - Brief Article

Rural Cooperatives, July-August, 2002

It took 18 months of courting to ice the deal, but New Vision Co-op at Worthington in southwest Minnesota recently shipped 75 railcars of soybeans--about 270,000 bushels--to an oilseed crushing company in Jalisco (near Guadalajara), Mexico. An agricultural merchandising firm that represents about 200 cooperatives in the Upper Midwest helped arrange the sale. The shipment marked the first direct sale by Minnesota farmers to a foreign customer under a state program promoting exports.

Talks are underway for the sale of more soybeans and possibly corn. While the $1 million sale was big for the cooperative, it was a small part of the state's annual total exports of $681 million in soybeans and soybean products. Almost 2 years ago, Gov. Jesse Ventura headed a trade mission to Mexico and mutual visits followed by Minnesota farmers and state agricultural officials from Mexico. ative sector," Snyder said.