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Sep 19, 2013
USDA Deputy Secretary Krysta Harden and ASA First Vice President Ray Gaesser find soy milk products on a grocery store shelf in Johannesburg, South Africa. Ms. Harden is leading a trade delegation to Africa to increase sales of U.S. agricultural products to Africa. A Minnesota based company exports close to 100 tons of processed soy ingredients per month to South Africa for production of soy dairy products.
ASA First Vice President Ray Gaesser attended the USDA's Sub-Saharan Africa Trade Initiative meetings in Johannesburg, South Africa this week as part of a delegation led by USDA's Deputy Secretary, Krysta Harden, Deputy Under Secretary, Darci Vetter; FAS Administrator, Phil Karsting; and numerous U.S. companies.
The group participated in meetings with FAS counselors and staff from six offices across the continent. A number of local businesses from the various regions also attended, seeking meetings with representatives from the 15 cooperators and 16 exporters offering various U.S. food products. ASA's WISHH staff members Jim Hershey and Erica Morrow were in attendance along with USSEC's Dana Johnson. Gaesser left Johannesburg to attend meetings in Durban, South Africa, hosted by AfricaBio, to discuss the issue of "Low Level Presence" (LLP) of biotech events in commodity shipments.
