Rick Fruth is a corn grower from Ohio who serves as vice chairman of the US Grains Council and he says the continuing development of international markets is the main focus of their organization.

“We’ve seen markets back in the 70s that were very important to us – western Europe and the former Soviet Union – evaporate and we’ve had to replace those with new markets,” he told me. “It’s not something you can accomplish overnight, it’s something you have to have a long term strategy for and that’s what we continue to do.”

Rick also talked about the importance of the partnership between USGC and USDA FAS. “It’s extremely important to us as producers. It’s the cornerstone of what enables us to function in international market development.”

See photos from the USGC Delegate Meeting here on Flickr.

Listen to or download my interview with Rick here: