Gov. Bob McDonnell returns from an 11-day overseas marketing trip today, bringing with him leads on expanding agricultural exports into growing Asian markets.
"We believe that there will be, within the next couple weeks, some very specific releases that we will be able to provide, particularly in the agriculture-export area," McDonnell told reporters in a conference call Monday from Seoul, South Korea.
Agreements involving exports of soybeans and chicken were reached in concept, he said. He added that he would like to have more details on those soon as well as some port exchanges.
Over the course of the trip that took McDonnell and 15 others to Japan, China and South Korea, six memorandums of agreement have been signed — essentially expressions of interest that the state hopes will result in sales.
McDonnell said members of his Cabinet have "an enormous amount of follow-up" to "put some teeth into some of the preliminary agreements."
Agriculture is still the largest industry in Virginia, and McDonnell said "we know that particularly nations like Japan and Korea, and even to some degree China because of their terrain, have more people than they do resources to feed them."
"And so pork, soybeans, peanuts, wine are all things that we know there are markets for in Asia, and we have just got to continue to make that push."
Aside from commodities, McDonnell said he's also looking for "a dramatic increase in direct foreign investment in Virginia."
He spent part of Monday discussing trade matters with South Korean President Lee Myung-bak.
In the approximately 40-minute meeting at the Blue House, South Korea's executive residence, the governor gave Lee a copy of a letter he sent to members of the Virginia congressional delegation in support of the South Korea-U.S. free trade agreement.
This was McDonnell's second overseas trade trip to try to expand Virginia agricultural exports and lure business.
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