Export obviously will improve your companies bottom line and help increase your profits. It will also provide you with the much larger marketing base. If you have a drop in sales for your product at home exports can really soften the blow. We see this a lot when we look at products that are seasonal. For example, previously I came from the ice cream industry, I launched Ben & Jerry's Ice Cream overseas, and here in the US typically the ice cream business is dead in the fall and winter. The nice thing about exporting, at least with a seasonal product for Ben & Jerry's it's always hot and summertime someplace else in the world so when our production diminished here at home we could help maintain a more stable production line and more stable sales year round when they considered exporting. It can also extend your products life cycle. If a product is old news to you and your country, chances are it hasn't been heard of or seen somewhere else in the world.

Another advantage to exporting is you can help find out what your competition is doing before it's too late. Typically here in the US when we look at some small to mid-sized companies, their American competitors are already exporting overseas. Then what they do is take their profits that their earning in a foreign market and invest it back here at home and it really takes away from the market share for American companies. Again, it's a good way to do some market recognizance when you go to another country you can find out what foreign companies like yours are doing overseas and you can take some of their ideas and help improve your product here in your own country. For example you can get some new packaging ideas, some new advertising, some new promotional ideas. When you go overseas you get an education in of itself that you can apply to your product here at home. Before I go on I should say that on the table, the handouts are all copies of every overhead that I have so you don't need to write every single thing down.

Your next step is you have to look at your product and evaluate it's export potential. Realistically every product does not have export potential. You have to look and see how successful is your product domestically. If it's successful in your country, chances are that it will be successful somewhere else. Are you receiving sales inquiries already from overseas folks? What product lines are mentioned most often? Some products have may limited potential in other markets differ significantly from the US or from your own home country. For example, when we look at the US and Europe, we're looking at very developed countries with very mature markets. Some of very gourmet item here in the US or in Europe that would sell for a lot of money may not have good potential in a country where the average consumer has a lower purchasing power, or unsophisticated handling. Particularly we see this when we look at refrigerated items.

Even in the US or in your country, if sales are declining there are chances that a market mix is somewhere else in the world. A lesser developed country may see your product as being new or advanced even though it may be old news here at home. Unique products almost always have a market. I can't tell you how many times all the retailers that we deal with overseas always say, "Well what's new?" Everybody always wants that magical product that they haven't seen before and we always say if we had the answer we wouldn't be here. What's really new now that everybody really wants is like a sweet dried cranberry. Ocean Spray launched a craze here in the US and that's really in demand overseas because they want to use it for baking and in the food service industry because what we see now is a shift in the supermarket industry. Here in the US a supermarket was always a place where you would go and buy the ingredients for a meal. Now we see the whole concept changing. With more women working, they want to go to the supermarket to buy a meal already prepared that they can take home rather than buying ingredients to make a meal. They just want to stop and buy one. They don't want to go to McDonalds or Burger King. They want to give their families something good to eat. So now we see the involvement of restaurants and supermarkets where you can go and buy homemade soup or roasted chickens and we seen this trend going overseas as well.

Next you have to do a product assessment. The most important thing really is shelf life. To have export potential, the longer the shelf life the better obviously. If you have a short shelf life, you have to look and see if you have the ability to change the packaging. Typically we see this in the snack food industry. Snack foods typically have a shelf life of 6 to 8 weeks. Not impossible but not good. So what we do when we want to export a product like snack foods with a low shelf life - we do have to change the packaging. It's called a nitrogen flush package. It kind of looks like aluminum foil with that silver packaging that you would find on a mylar balloon and that will extend the shelf life up to a month. So if you have a short shelf life you want to really look at a way to make it longer and that will increase your export potential. Again, a packaging change can improve your domestic sales. What we see a lot with companies that get involved in exporting is they take a lot of what they learn and they apply it back to their own market at home. Changes in design and size can improve the consumer perception here in the US or in your own country. Typically Europeans are known for fabulous, gorgeous packaging. When you put a European package next to a US package, your eyes open a little bit. A lot of American companies have been very successful when they take what they learned from our European friends and they mimic it here at home in the states. Here in the US we had square ice cream pints for years and that was perceived as being like low budget, low quality ice cream. Then when Ben & Jerry's and Hagen Daz can on the scene with a round pint and a super premium product, it gave the consumer perception that a round pint meant superior quality. And now what you'll find back here is a lot of middle the road or low grade ice creams now being switched to a round pint just for that consumer perception. So different packaging techniques can really help you here at home as well.

There are a few factors that get involved when you make a decision to export. First, s your management's export experience. You have to make sure you have qualified export people within your company. You have to see if you have ability to train existing personnel. Look at your staff's knowledge of foreign cultures and business practices. But most importantly, you need a commitment from top management to export. Because an export effort - whether you're exporting food, trucks, tee shirts, or whatever it is - it really takes two years to break even for your investment and up to five for you to make a substantial amount of money out of it. So it really does take time and what we see is that a lot of companies give up almost before they really get started. So it really is an investment and you have to look at it as that You have to look at the financial capacity of your firm. You have to see what amount of financial capital that you have to invest in an export effort. It doesn't take a million dollars. You could start off as conservatively as you like. I know successful companies that have started with $5,000.00 in their export effort and have done quite well. You have to see what level of export department operating costs you can invest in developing an export strategy. Maybe you have additional warehouse space for stock already. And then again, you must have the flexibility to change your packaging. A lot of companies that start say sell what we have and we don't want to change our package. Stickers are permissible in many countries but in some they are not. So you do have to be able to be willing to change your packaging because international law says the consumer has the right to read and understand what they are putting in their mouths.

Next you have to evaluate your production capacity. How much your present capacity been used. Are there any fluctuations? This we saw at Ben & Jerry's when we first go started there. They had such demand in the US that when they initially decided to go international they didn't have the production facility that could handle it. And what happened is that a lot of customers ended up getting a little annoyed because they had orders that they couldn't possible fill. That's a great position to be in. You have to look and see what minimum order quantity would be required and what would be best for your company. You don't obviously want to deal with orders that are not worth your while because an export order is costly to administer, more so than a domestic.

Ben & Jerry's is an ice cream company in Vermont. Probably one of the most famous here in the US. It was started after Hagen Daz. Hagen Daz is the world's most famous super premium ice cream. Ben & Jerry's is a funny company. They were started by two vermont hippies. I love to tell the story of how Ben & Jerry met. They were two friends that met when they were in seventh grade. They were the two kids in the class that nobody liked. They were overweight, had no friends when they were in seventh grade and they met in the gym class. The teacher said that you had to run around the track in seven minutes and if you didn't make it around the track in seven minutes you had to do it again. Well the only two who didn't make it were Ben & Jerry and the teacher said to Ben, "Well you didn't make it around the track so you're going to have to do it again." Ben said, "Well if I didn't make it around the first time in seven minutes, then I'm not going to make it around the second time." And ever since they were friends. They started because they couldn't get into college. When they got into college they got kicked out. Ben went into Colgate University because they had fireplaces in the dorm rooms there. But he found the campus too confining so he decided to take a home study course and he thought that the world as being his campus was too confining too. So together they decided to take a course from Penn State University on how to make ice cream. The reason they did that was because the course was only five dollars and they figured $2.50 a piece was something they could afford to do. Then they started to sell ice cream locally in their town in Vermont with all kinds of crazy flavors and wonderful packaging and the rest is history. They went up against Hagen Daz which is a multi billion dollar company because their owned by Grand Met who ones Pillsbury and they were able to be Hagen Daz's number one competitor here in the US. And these two little Vermont hippies now are worth a fortune. They market their products really overseas. In a very unconventional sort of way. The last CEO they selected they had companies enter applicants write an essay as to why they wanted to be CEO of Ben & Jerry's ice cream. And the person that wrote the best report won. So they're quite interesting people and I like to go back to them because they really have done a remarkable job and I think we really can learn a lot from their example.

The next thing you need to do is see if you have the ability to mix your pallets and mix your orders. Typically when a buyer wants to buy products overseas they don't want to buy all of one product or a whole pallet of one particular kind of flavor or product. They want the chance to be able to mix the order as a test to see what will sell before they order the larger volume. You know you're ready to export when your top management is willing to give your export effort 2 to 5 years, you have the ability or willingness to change your packaging and you can be priced competitively in the foreign market.

These are the key factors to successful export planning. Make sure you have the right approach to exporting. You want to pick the right countries to start with. You want to adapt your product to those countries. You want to pick the right channel of distribution and obviously the best promotional strategy for that company. You are not going to have the same promotional strategy in each country because every country is different.

There are two different ways to export - indirect and direct and basically all that means is that you want to do it yourself or you want to have someone else do it for you. And really a combination of the two is not bad either. What you may want to do is have someone do it for you in one market when you're not comfortable and do it yourself in a market where you are comfortable. Giant such as Campbell Soup will use another company to export for them in the middle east because it's an area where they really are not that comfortable in.

Indirect exporting is the most common method for a small company or a mid-sized company to use when you want to use an export trading company to handle your international marketing effort for you. Here you would make the same sales transactions as you would a domestic sale. You would ship to a domestic location and your purchaser would be a domestic company in your country. Here the manufacturer bears no risk of payment by a foreign party, an export trading company assumes all international sales and marketing functions for that region. They are, if you will, your export or your international marketing person for that particular company even though they are not an in-house employee. The export trading company retains control of your brand. They do all of your marketing and promotional efforts in that country, you don't. So that's a little bit of a risk. And again, you have a smaller pocket margin for the manufacturer because you will have to pay this person to be your intermediary.

The other way is direct exporting and that's if you decide you want to do it yourself. Here you assume all the international sales and marketing functions for your product and your brand. So with it comes greater control over your brand but also greater risk and responsibility. You also have a greater profit margin because you don't have to pay a middle man to do it.

So now you have to decide which way is best for you. Look at the size of your firm and as I mentioned before smaller firms usually decide to go the indirect route because they don't have the staff to devote to a full time international marketing and sales function. Look at the nature of your products. Those that are ready for retail market and that are unique in nature really are more best suited to direct export. Look at the previous experience and expertise of your staff and make your decision there. And again, don't rule out the combination of two approaches. Typically when we get into target marketing you'll see where we'll have to pick three or four countries and maybe one country you want to do yourself and the other two you want to have someone else do it for you. So a combination of the two is fine.

How do you know where to go first? We always tell people do not pick any more than four countries please because you won't do any of them right. So really you have to look at your product and pick the best three or four countries of which to devote your time and your money to. For many different sources, here in the US we have USDA and FAS where we can go to get our information and our statistics. I know in a lot of the countries where you all are from your governments have statistics too. You can look and you can see which are the fastest growing markets for your product. Which countries overseas have imported the most of your product from your country. That is your first stepping block if you will to start your list to weed down from.

Were the imports of that country significant even in periods of recession? And again, consider small but fast emerging markets. They could provide ground floor opportunities for your product to get started.

You want to narrow your list down to four key countries to focus on. You want to look at the government regulations, are there quotas and tariff barriers that would prohibit the importation or at least restrict it a lot for your products. Here in the US their is a large dairy quota with Canada so dairy companies looking to export into Canada really don't have a whole lot of opportunity there. So we would not discourage them but we would encourage them to look for other countries that would not have that type of restriction. Look at the political climate and socioeconomic factors and when you see what your products priced at look at the average salary of the consumers in that country and make sure that you have a fit there. Look at the infrastructure. Again you want to look sure that if you have a frozen or refrigerated product that the country that you're targeting has the ability to handle it. Look at the distribution channels. What are the generally accepted trade terms? What are the normal commissions and service charges? And what are the laws regarding agency and distribution agreements in those countries. Look at the market size. How big is the market for your product? What's the competition? What price does it retail for? How does your competition promote their products in that country and what distribution systems are there available?

Then you have to adapt your product to the target countries. You have to give the consumer what they want, not what you think he needs. That's a reason why a lot of companies here fail. They try to just push what they currently have onto a foreign consumer and they have to realize that the taste and preferences to a foreign consumer are probably different and maybe the products okay but maybe you have to change the ingredients and the recipe a little bit.

Asians prefer small product sizes. Europeans emphasize attractive packaging. You look at flavors and taste and preferences. Fruit flavors are preferred in Latin American and the middle eastern folks love anything chocolate that they can get their hands on.

Next you have to check to make sure that your ingredients are okay. You have to particularly watch for preservatives and some countries. Then you have to investigate the packaging size that you have to make sure that it is acceptable in a target country because some countries have a law that says you can only import things in even metric lots. Which means if your product is 243 grams, forget but if its 250 grams, it's okay. So you just have to make sure before you waste a lot of time and money to make sure that your packaging is okay. Identify the packaging preferences in the market and then again look at your pricing. You should really do some store checks or have somebody do a store check for you perhaps some of the embassies of your country and some of the different markets overseas would have staff with the resources available to go into some of the different supermarkets in the country and see what the average retail price is. We have that availability here in the US and again stickers are permissible in many countries and can lower the cost of entry. So you can actually sticker a product without having to go and change your packaging completely in a lot of cases and save on a lot of money there.

Are any of you exporting now? What's your product?

Mangos to Japan. How has your business been with the recent Asian crisis? Has it suffered? Good luck.

We export tropical grass seeds to Brazil, Argentina, and Mexico and also to the asian countries and we are being greatly effected by the asian downfall.

Most of all of our countries here have suffered tremendously. I really have to say the only product that we've seen in the northeast that has managed to sustain business in Japan was the wild blueberry folks in Maine and that's only because the product is so unique that they've been able to withstand. But we've had a lot of meat companies in particular to just lose it all in Japan. So I can understand just what all of you have been going through, that's for sure.

Anybody else? We're trying to export fine marina wool from Australia to the world without a great deal of success.

Anybody else? Dairy product from New Zealand worldwide. Raw milk or finished product? Like yogurt and cottage cheese. And you're focusing primarily on Asia? Or have you tried Asia and other countries as well? We don't directly export this ourselves but we provide prime lamb for the US export market and I don't know if that was one of ours you ate on Monday but if you enjoyed it I assure you it was. We're actually in an advantageous situation now with the devaluation of the Australian dollar against the US and we actually have some other products that we are looking at directing exporting to the US now except if that's possible and we should be able to land them here at quite an advantageous price.

I have some bad news a little bit. The fees that the US supermarkets charge companies to get in are the highest in the world and it's just a really a bit embarrassing. What we find when we talk to US companies is they say oh my God I can't even consider exporting because I can't afford what I have to pay the Americans to keep the product on the shelf here at home. So I will warn you that all the major chains are really really crazy when they look for slotting fees, which I'm sure you're aware of.

The question was do you still have to pay the slotting fees if you want to look at direct supply to American restaurants? Typically the best way to do that in the US if to use a food broker that would go around and supply the local restaurant chain and act as a sales force and can actually act as your sales and buying person here in the states. No, you don't have to pay big slotting fees obviously but you would have to pay a brokerage fee but it's not the horrible bribe money that the American supermarkets charge to keep a product on the shelf.

One Australian lady I talked to the other day said that one of their very fine wines she saw over in the drugstore on the corner and that it has a triangular shape label. Is that Mont Blanc? But it was cheaper there than what she could buy it at home. I don't know how that happened.

The question was if we swipe product for product if a company from Australia can swipe milk or cheese products with an American company is that a way for the slotting fees in the US to be eliminated? Unfortunately no because the retail chains here at home in the states have nothing to do with the cooperatives and unfortunately how they operate is really with the slotting fees. If you don't pay slotting here in the states they will ask you for price offs, money left for the product or free product. They'll get it somehow, someway. The slotting fees are so miserable. To give you an idea, the last one I picked to get ice cream into a convenience store chain in the northeast. Now this was just a chain that is northeast only, it is not nationwide. It was $800,000.00. It's brutal. It's really hurting a lot of American companies and that's why a lot of American companies are forced to export because who in the heck has that kind of money to constantly pay Acme and Superfresh and ShopRite and Kroger and all of the big ones here at home. That was an outright fee just to get in and it's less per year. That was 800 stores and again it was freezer space which is more than dry grocery. Every store in every chain has a different amount. It is absolutely horrible here when it comes to slotting.

I wanted to ask if there are channels for the smaller stores than non supermarkets that would not charge slotting fees? The smaller independent stores don't charge those kinds of slotting fees obviously and they would ask typically if you were to give some sort of promotional support or point of sale merchandizing to help move your product in the store and again you could go through a broker for that and get into a smaller store. But typically a downside is a smaller store that won't have the slotting but it's not going to give you the volume either. I'm speaking of the major major giants here that are 1000, 1200, or 2000 stores but if your company is small you may not have the volume to supply a customer like that anyway.

With the supermarket paths in Britain for example, there are two major supermarket paths. Obviously the US is the same. Susanly and our country, New Zealand is the same and that they're demanding greater margins at the expense of the producers and the customers cost and nobody's the winner except the middleman so what's the answer. Have you any solutions, options, suggestions?

Yeah I do and I'll get into that later. I think what we've been able to see here at least when we advise American companies to go overseas and if they want to go to Britain and deal with Tesco and Sainsbury and Jamesway and all those multiples, whistle stop. What we tell them really is that they have to be different because the first stop the british retails ask is how much money are you going to give me and I hate to admit that but it's true. So what we find is that you have to offer something to make their lives absolutely pain free. The last thing a buyer wants is to have some kind of aggravation or any problem and if you can go to that next step above and do something that really very few companies do they're able to waive the slotting fees in lieu to get rid of the aggravation. For example, they don't want to have to sticker your product. They want you to do it. If it has to come into their warehouse and they have to sticker it to put it on the shelf they're going to ask for the bucks. So if you can sticker your product and if you can offer them virtually no problem in delivery - the number one complaint, particularly in Great Britain is that the delivery when they deal with mid-sized and smaller companies is not reliable. Typically they'll say if they do a promotion they want an access of 10% stock in a local warehouse so that if the product starts to sell they don't have to wait for it to travel overseas, it's right there. If you're able to, have more than 10% stock as backup in the warehouse so that you can impress that buyer. I do a lot of work with Carfor in France and the international buyer for Carfor group said to me, "Beth with you I don't have any problems or worries because I know that it is going to be there." This man, it takes five years to get an appointment with him and if you screw up you don't get a second chance. I think that the only reason we were successful was because we made his life aggravation free. The product was there when he wanted it. He didn't have to sticker it, we did it for him, and we anticipated his needs before he did. We had the stock in a local warehouse so that when he needed it the product was there. And I think if you can offer exceptional service and do things that really nobody else will - if you will mix the pallets - if perhaps your company would offer some sort of not slotting but promotional support against store tastings and you can guarantee reliable delivery and maybe do something that nobody else will. Ask the buyer, "What do you want from me or from my country? What kind of products do you want?" We were successful doing gift packs for Carfor. Nobody wants to do gift packs. Gift packs are very difficult to do. They are a pain in the neck. We did them so he waived the slotting fees. That's the only way that we have found to really bypass the slotting. Does anybody have any other questions on that before I move on.

I just wanted to make sure because I realize that we only have about 30 more minutes. The two ladies to my left are trade policy experts and negotiators and so I wanted to get everything out about export and product development I wanted to remind you that they are here in case you have questions about trade today or about issues you've encountered when bringing your product to market.

I'm just going to briefly go through the rest so we have some more times for your questions. Next you have your channel distribution. You have to decide if you want to deal with supermarkets directly. Supermarkets usually want terms. They don't want letters of credit. They want to pay in ninety days typically. Sometimes it's possible for you to arrange for what we call a time letter credit where you can get your money upon shipment and the supermarket chain will have sixty to ninety days to pay you. But a lot of times to get this you have to deal directly with the supermarkets appointed warehouse. You can choose to deal with an importer distributer and importers and distributors will almost always accept a letter of credit so that's really to your advantage. You don't have to wait to get your money or put yourself in a fighting match with a supermarket chain. The importer and distributor will handle your product servicing and aftermarket support as well. But what you really need to do is make sure you define the responsibilities of the person that you choose in a contract.

The other way is you can appoint a foreign agent and I would urge you to utilize a native to help you develop your export price list to make sure you don't leave any of the margins out. You have to really be sure that you are familiar with the customary margins in the country that you're dealing with to make sure you're price is competitive because once you give your price out to a retailer if you find out that you've left out a margin of a middle person that has to be in there for distributions stand point you can lose money before you make a sale. So I think it is always good if you enlist the services of a local or native person to that market just to make sure that you've dotted all your i's and crossed all your t's. An agent can introduce you to appropriate buyers and importers and distributors and advise you of a proper promotional strategy as well. But what you need to find out is what the law is when you employ foreign agents in a foreign country because some countries go to extremes to protect the rights of their citizens and a lot of countries, there is a few in South America where you can hire an agent and if that agent doesn't perform you want to go ahead and hire someone else, you still have to go ahead and pay a commission on the person you fired. So you have to be really careful.

All this is really in your packet so I'm just going to briefly go over it. Many companies fail before they even get started. If they go ahead and try to do a price list on their own without enlisting at least the once over by a native in the market and pre printed export price lists. A lot of companies go and distribute pre printed price lists that shows and I really think it's disastrous and I always advise people if a company or an interested person comes up and wants pricing tell them that you will send it to them once you know what you're dealing with.

These are the different factors to consider when you establish your export price. You need to look and see if similar products are being sold in that target country. Do some store checks at different cities in that country and if you're not there perhaps your governments have personnel in the country that can assist you. I know ours does. Look for the different sizes, brands, the packaging and also look at cross categories. Is your product available in fresh and frozen.

Remember that your profit margin on an export order will almost always be less than on a domestic one because a foreign consumer has to pay so much more to get it there.

On an export order for an American company the average profit margin is about 23%. So you can see that it's different. But the volume is there.

Cost of distribution in country includes the margin of the distributor, the margin of the supermarket and again the famous slotting fees.

This is my favorite part - the promotional strategy. You have to try to decide what type of promotional strategy you are going to use for your product and the country that you are targeting and the good way to start is look and see what major products are successful in your own country. Look and see what advertising and public relations practices you use at home and see if it would be applicable to the country that you're dealing with. You can identify appropriate trade exhibitions for your product and realize that international trade shows are very different than domestic ones. Typically many companies starting to export show up at an international trade show unprepared. They don't do their homework before they go to the show. They don't see what products and what flavors and preferences and tastes of a product are going to be preferred in the country that their exhibiting. And a lot of times companies bring the wrong product to the shelf and they really lose business because the person that's walking by doesn't realize that you have that in your product line but you left it at home so really if you can do your homework before you go you will be better off. And again, a native to assist you ahead of time will be fine. Typically a common question when you do a foreign trade show a foreign person will come up and ask you what a container costs to get it from your home town to their port of entry so it's always good to call up a local freight forwarder and know your major freight rates for your products to the major ports in the world. And again, quick response time is very very important. Americans are notorious for being horrible when it comes to following up on trade leads. A foreign customer expects a response in seven to ten days after the show. If they don't get it they feel personally insulted as if their lead or their inquiry wasn't important to you as the exporter. So it's almost as if you've offended them on a personal level so really if you don't want to lose the benefit of exhibiting you have to follow up on your trade leads. And again you have to be willing to invest in promoting your brand. If you want to put the burden on your foreign importer or your foreign broker it will never work. You're willing to invest in promoting your brand at home so it's really no different. You need to put you faith and invest in your brand in the market that you're pursuing too.

A good way to really get some major dollars and major sales is to do a retail promotion but you don't want to work with just any retailer. The woman in the back mentioned about the UK retailers. The retailers are notorious for being loyal to a brand as long as the checks coming. Once the check stops so does the orders so we always tell people that you really need to make sure that you deal with a retailer that has a good retention rate. You want to select a retailer that will buy your product when the promotion is over. And they are out there. You just have to really be choosy and find out what the retention rate is. Obviously none of us is interested in a quick sale that will last for two weeks because we want a long term type of relationship.

Joint brand promotions are really successful. If you can take your smaller brand and team up with an industry leader and do some joint promotion perhaps couponing or joint product testing it really tends to work well for both companies and both products. We see this a lot. We did TCBY frozen yogurt in the US with wild blueberries from Maine. Both companies benefitted. And again the consumer education is crucial. If you've got a source of some sort of if you don't want to just put it on the shelf or if it's a new product here in the states that you're launching it's not just going to jump off the shelf. The people have to understand how to use it. So you would want to do tastings or perhaps you would want to put a notecard around the bottle top with a recipe so that we know how to use it.

I mentioned before how a small company can work with a retail giant as if you really have to go that step above and you really have to offer it like nobody else will. So if it means mixing pallets or if it means the better delivery doing the stickering coming up with creative marketing ideas and really working with your buyer to find out what it is that they want you're going to be successful and avoid the slotting fees.

Does anybody have any questions or want to share any experiences that they've had. That really concludes the presentation that we had for you today and I hope that you can go away with some kind of way or education on at least how our market has worked for us and that years and years of experience can tell you how to bring your product to market. Anyway welcome all of you. I know this is late in the game to Washington. It's really wonderful to be a woman in agriculture and see other women here today from other countries doing the same thing. I hope you enjoy your stay.