Editor's note: We're looking at international market opportunities for potatoes. Check out the first part of this report.

“A lot of restaurants in Vietnam have french fries, and french fries are being sold in their markets,” says Andy Anderson. “From what I have seen, Vietnamese are crazy about french fries.”

Anderson, executive director of the Western United States Agricultural Trade Association, along with others trying to boost ag exports from the Western U.S., annually take trips to promising foreign markets.

OVERSEA SPUDS: USDA Acting Deputy Secretary Michael Scuse and Laura Johnson, bureau chief for market development in the Idaho Department of Agriculture, look at U.S. potatoes on display at a retail market in Malaysia. The USDA and other U.S. organizations are actively promoting many agricultural products overseas, including potatoes.

One of the recent journeys was to Vietnam and neighboring countries, where representatives from eight U.S. companies joined people like Anderson to discuss ways of opening trade.

They participate in a mixture of formal meetings, tours and meet-and-greets. Among the highlights, says Anderson, was a luncheon at a culinary school in Vietnam that trains restaurant chefs.

“They cooked traditional Vietnamese food for us, and they also prepared American-style foods, including french fries, coated fries, potato cakes and curly fries,” Anderson says. “One of the things the school is doing is teaching students how to prepare and present foods like we would see them in the U.S. When it came to french fries, the only thing different was some of the sauces they served. In addition to ketchup, there were some Vietnamese sauces that were spicy and hot. Some were very hot, but they were all very good.”

That school is just one more example of the expanding tastes in Asian and Pacific Rim countries, and how those tastes could benefit farmers in the West, including those who grow spuds.

“A lot more fresh chipping potatoes are going overseas to countries like Korea, where Frito-Lay and other companies are making chips. And we’re seeing demand for all types of processed, value-added U.S. food products,” Anderson says.

“Dairy is growing pretty rapidly in some Asian countries, where people are developing a taste for yogurts and cheeses. The demand for pasta, sauces, dried fruits, nuts and wine is growing. You name it, we’re exporting it to other countries.”

Trans-Pacific Partnership a potential boon for ag

Andy Anderson encourages farmers and ranchers to become involved in discussions about exports, and they can do this by asking their congressional delegates to support such things as the Trans-Pacific Partnership, which would reduce or eliminate as many as 18,000 tariffs on American exports.

“For American agriculture, the potential is billions of dollars of exports,” says Anderson, executive director of the Western United States Agricultural Trade Association. “To me, that’s a very big deal.”

If producers want to learn more, he notes, they can go to the USDA TPP website at fas.usda.gov/topics/trans-pacific-partnership-tpp or the American Farm Bureau Federation’s website at fb.org/issues/tpp/.

What do exports mean to farmers in the West and across America?

“As an example, there is a company right here in Washington that supplies a lot of french fries to the retail market in Asia,” Anderson says. “We see great growth potential in everything from the small mom and pop stores that are just starting out all the way up to the big box stores that are in some of these foreign countries—Wal-Mart on the American side, Tesco from Europe, Carrefour from France.”

He adds: “There is a lot of interest in retail-type products, and U.S. farmers and ranchers can be part of that.”

Exports bring stability to ag

Thirteen state departments of agriculture in the West, including the eight states covered by Western Farmer-Stockman, work in partnership with the Western United States Agricultural Trade Association to develop agribusiness export opportunities.

WUSATA’s executive director, Andy Anderson, says that exporting allows everything from farmer and rancher groups to large food-processing companies to expand business opportunities, which helps to bring stability and opportunities for growth.

“When you begin exporting as a supplier in the global marketplace, you gain a new perspective on world economies and your role in them,” he says.

WUSATA not only collaborates with the state ag departments, it also has close ties with USDA and, when it comes to potatoes, organizations like the Denver-based United States Potato Board, the country’s main potato marketing organization.

WUSATA, based in Vancouver, Wash., also works with companies belonging to local or industry-based trade organizations, which can participate in inbound and outbound trade missions, market research and talks dealing with everything from trade barriers to phytosanitary issues.

“Maximum residue limits are a hot topic when it comes to exports,” Anderson says. “We get two or three notices weekly from different foreign countries, and MRLs are always in a state of flux and are a big issue that the United States Potato Board is dealing with.”

He adds: “A foreign country will do a trade agreement and cut tariffs, but all the sudden they raise the MRLs, so it’s an issue that that potato industry and others in agriculture must continue to address.”

Anderson says that’s why it’s important to work closely with ag organizations and state ag departments. And participating in trade missions, whether in the U.S. or overseas, is a good way to help forge relationships the old-fashioned way: a handshake followed by dinner and conversation.

In September and October alone, WUSATA is sponsoring outbound trade missions to China, Jakarta Indonesia, the Philippines, Paris and Germany and an inbound mission to Idaho and California.

More information about WUSATA programs is on its website at wusata.org/.

Anderson encourages farmers and ranchers in the West who are interested in export opportunities to initially contact their state ag department. Information for each agency is listed under the Who We Are link on the WUSATA website.