Friday, November 21, 2008

MATT OLIVER
Staff Writer

As thousands of farmers descended upon the Farm Progress Show Wednesday morning, it became evident that all of the eyes of the agricultural world are on Boone this week.

By Wednesday afternoon, approximately 500 international visitors had utilized the International Visitor's Center.

"Our intent is to make our international visitors comfortable," said Peggy Kerr, International Marketing Manager for the Iowa Department of Economic Development.

Kerr explained that the International Visitor's Center, sponsored by the Iowa Department of Economic Development and Iowa Agribusiness Export Partnership, welcomed agriculturalists from nearly every continent. Visitors came from Brazil, Argentina, Chile, Mexico, Germany, Italy, Russia, Ukraine, Australia, Ghana and South Africa - just to name a few.

While the center serves as a site for those from afar, it also provided visitors with on-hand interpreters and student interpreters. With the advancing technological world, international visitors were also provided with Internet access to network with clients. Though the center provided many amenities to its visitors, it also served the purpose of promoting agricultural exchange not only within America as a whole, but primarily within Iowa.

"One of our primary goals it to assist Iowa companies in exporting their products," Kerr said. "Another role is to assist international companies that are interested in expanding to the U.S. and might be interested in an Iowa location."

Aside from visiting the Farm Progress Show, Kerr said that many of the visitors comprised tour groups throughout the week. Some of the tours included visiting Iowa farms, ethanol plants and the Chicago Board of Trade's grain markets - in order to understand how American commodities operate.

"It just depends on the interests of the groups," Kerr said.

One visitor who traveled from the other side of the globe to Boone was Alex Bond. Bond came all the way from Moscow with an interest in used agricultural equipment.

"We are looking for partners in the U.S. that have experience in exporting new machinery, used machinery and spare parts," Bond said.

One Russian agricultural company Bond represents, Krasny Vostok (which translates to "Red East" in English), is a large farming firm that has approximately 370,000 acres of fields.

Bond's other company is Transvitek. Vitaliy Sheptyakov is the chief executive officer for the company - which is engaged in agricultural trading and delivers American and European farm machinery to the Russian and Ukrainian markets.

"They try to bring the best of the West to the former Soviet Union," Bond said.

Lexion combines, which are produced by the German manufacturer Claas, were one piece of farm machinery that caught Bond's attention. Bond noted that the Lexion combines featured at the Farm Progress Show are a distinctive Caterpillar yellow, which are only sold in the U.S.

Overall, Bond said his visit to the Farm Progress Show was very welcoming. He was able to access his e-mail and communicate with business partners back home in Russia.

One aspect of America that Bond was quick to notice was the overall friendliness of American citizens.

"American people are very friendly," he said. "I would say maybe even more friendly than Russian people are."