ROGERS, ARKANSAS- Foreign agricultural attachés arrived here on Sunday as part of a tour organized by the USDA's Foreign Agricultural Service (FAS). The group is visiting Arkansas and Louisiana this week, and will depart from New Orleans on Saturday. FAS worked with the Arkansas Department of Agriculture and the Louisiana Department of Agriculture and Forestry to develop the agenda.
The twenty-eight attachés participating in the tour represent the Americas, Asia, Africa, Europe, the Middle East, and Oceania.
The goal of the tour is to provide a firsthand look at U.S. agriculture in Arkansas and Louisiana, and an opportunity to learn more about topics such as production, marketing, international trade, rice, poultry, soybeans, specialty crops, sugar, forestry products, cooperatives, agricultural research, agricultural development, port operations, and cold storage.
The tour is making stops at many important spots including: Riceland Foods, Producers Rice Mill, Dow Brantley's farm, and the Dale Bumpers Rice Research Station in Arkansas; and in Louisiana the Angelina Ag Company, a 65,000 acre plantation that produces rice, corn, soybeans, cotton, grain sorghum, popcorn and oats, and the LSU Ag Center.
Since 1986, FAS has organized an annual orientation tour for the foreign agricultural attachés based in Washington. The tours are an effective goodwill building tool to help advance U.S. agricultural goals and interests.