Agriculture
Farm exports rising, new markets sought
|
By WEI YU
Capital News Service
LANSING – With a new South Korea Free Trade Agreement, state officials are pushing hard for more Michigan-based companies to sell their products abroad. The pact eliminated all duties such as tariffs and import quotas and virtually all other restrictions on trade between the two countries. The most recent figures show Michigan ranks eighteenth in the United States for agricultural exports, with a total value of $1.75 billion. It is the seventh-largest exporting state for fruit and processed fruit products and the ninth-largest exporter of vegetables and vegetable products, according to the state Department of Agriculture. More than one-third of Michigan agricultural commodities are exported each year.