Landus Cooperative in Ames hosted a roundtable on Thursday with United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) Secretary, Sonny Perdue. Gov., Kim Reynolds, Lt. Gov., Adam Gregg, and Iowa Secretary and Deputy Secretary of Agriculture and Land Stewardship, Mike Naig and Julie Kenney, all joined farmer-members and industry leaders to discuss their concerns with the recent trade deals with China, Mexico and Canada. The group reports a sense of urgency in the ag industry to complete the deal with China and to get a clearer understanding of the recently announced U.S.-Mexico agreement. “Landus Cooperative ships a 110-car train of grain to Mexico every six days,” said COO, Brett Bell. “In the last year, we have shipped almost 23 million bushels of corn direct to Mexico. Having access to that market is key to our Iowa producers,” Bell added. The company’s grain sales account for 11 percent of Iowa’s corn exports and 16 percent of Iowa’s soybean exports. The group also shared concerns about creating on-farm profitability, which will attract young people back to their family farms and into the ag industry. Landus Cooperative CEO, Milan Kucerak, voiced his appreciation. “Our business is owned by our farmer-members,” he said. “They are real people impacted by policy and trade issues. We thank Gov. Reynolds and Secretary Purdue for their continued vigilance in moving our industry forward.”
