International mission trips taken by pork producers and delegates with the Iowa Pork Producers Association prove beneficial for the industry as a whole. It allows producers to share their experiences and expertise while learning about the wants and needs of their export partners.

After the global pandemic put a damper on mission trips taken abroad, a producer-led delegation from the Iowa Pork Producers Association traveled to Mexico in March. They spent time in Mexico City and Guadalajara, which was crucial as Mexico is one of the United State’s largest markets.

“This was an all-agriculture group so we had corn, soybean, beef and pork representatives involved in this mission trip. It looked at not only producers but more importantly purchasers of pork products in our case,” said Pat McGonegle, chief executive officer of the Iowa Pork Producers Association.

“Most of them were processors who take pork products and make them into cold cuts, hot dogs and other products.”

Two takeaways from the March mission trip to Mexico were that the Mexican market is steadily growing and quite important to the U.S., particularly pork producers. The delegation also learned that importers in Mexico want more information about what their counterparts in America are doing in regard to sustainability.

“They also wanted to hear what we’re doing to make sure we continue to be a reliable supplier,” McGonegle said.

Looking ahead, the Iowa Pork Producers Association has a mission trip planned for February and March of 2023. Producers will be heading to Japan and Korea first, then Vietnam and the Philippines.

“Japan and Korea are very, very important markets to us. Vietnam and the Philippines are two growing markets. We’ll be continuing our reliable supplier relationship development with Japan and Korea, then we’ll work to understand emerging markets a bit better when visiting the Philippines and Vietnam,” McGonegle said.