Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack will go to Japan early next month where he will promote U.S. agricultural exports. While in Japan, Vilsack will meet with Japanese Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, Hirotaka Akamatsu, as well as U.S. exporters and Japanese importers. In announcing his trip, Secretary Vilsack said his mission will be to continue to push hard to open markets and to bolster an open, rules-based international trading system that will benefit both consumers and our farmers and ranchers.
A highlight of the trip, April 5-9 will be a celebration of the 50th anniversary of the 1959 "hog lift" when Iowa framers sent 36 hogs to Yamanashi after suffered major livestock losses caused by two typhoons. Iowa and Yamanashi established a sister-state relationship after the hog lift. A delegation from Iowa will accompany Vilsack to Yamanashi.
Vilsack said the hog lift symbolizes the start off a flourishing agricultural relationship. For more than 50 years, U.S. grains and soybeans producers have worked with Japanese importers to develop strong and reliable markets that have benefited producers and consumers alike. Japan is the United States' third largest export market with sales of more than $11 billion in FY2009.
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