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The group -- which includes potential
customers from China, Malaysia, Mexico and the Philippines
-- has accepted the department's invitation to participate in its
2005 Illinois Pork Industry Tour.
The three-day tour June 6-8 includes
stops at hog farms, a livestock equipment dealer, a swine genetics
company, the Chicago Board of Trade and the Chicago Mercantile
Exchange. It is designed not only to demonstrate the high caliber
of the Illinois pork industry, but also to cultivate trade leads
that will lead to increased export sales for the state's producers
and agribusinesses.
"Market development activities
like the pork industry tour are vital to our state's farm
economy," said Chuck Hartke, director of the Department of
Agriculture. "Illinois is the fourth-leading agricultural exporter
in the United States with foreign sales of $3.4 billion, and those
sales account for 40 percent of the industry's annual income."
Illinois produced 1.8 billion
pounds of pork in 2003, ranking fourth among all states. Including
export sales, cash receipts from the marketing of hogs totaled
$833 million.
Tour participants, most of whom
are farmers, were recruited through the department's Far East and
Latin American trade offices. After their visit to Illinois ends,
they will travel to Des Moines, Iowa, for this year's World Pork
Expo.
The itinerary for the 2005
Illinois Pork Industry Tour follows:
June 5
- Arrive in St. Louis at Lambert
International Airport
[to top of second column in this article]
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 June 6
- 9 a.m. -- Cedar Ridge Farms,
Red Bud
- 2:15 p.m. -- Ag Buy Company,
Litchfield
- 7 p.m. -- Holiday Inn Hotel and
Conference Center, Urbana
Dinner and program sponsored by Illinois livestock exporters:
- Ag-World, Bloomington
- AM-CAN, Bloomington
- Inter-Ag Exports, Dow
- Helfter Feeds, Osco
- Ag Buy Company, Carlinville
June 7
- 8:45 a.m. -- Prairie State Semen,
Champaign
- 10:30 a.m. -- University of
Illinois, Champaign-Urbana
June 8
- 9:30 a.m. -- Chicago Board of
Trade, Chicago
- 10:45 a.m. -- Chicago Mercantile
Exchange, Chicago
- 3 p.m. -- Jeff Kolb Durocs,
Benson
June 9
- Depart for World Pork Expo in Des
Moines, Iowa
[Illinois
Department of Agriculture news release]
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