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Virginia C apitol C onnections, Fall 2014 7
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See Virginia Agriculture and Forestry, continued on page 8
Virginia Agriculture
and Forestry–
Building Domestic Capacity,
Exporting to the World
By Todd P. Haymore
Virginia Secretary of Agriculture & Forestry
During his first State of the
Commonwealth address, Governor Terence
McAuliffe boldly stated that one of the
top economic development goals during
his administration would be ensuring
that Virginia is the East Coast Capital for
agriculture and forestry exports. In the first
year, we are well on our way to achieving
that goal.
Agriculture and forestry are two of
Virginia’s largest industries generating more
than $70 billion annually and accounting for
approximately 415,000 jobs across the Commonwealth.
Within the context of the larger economic development agenda,
the Governor directed me to develop initiatives that gave Virginia’s
agricultural and forestry sectors more opportunities to grow and prosper.
Promoting export growth, with a particular focus on fast-growing
global economies, became the top priority to reach this goal.
Why? Exports generate revenue, jobs, and opportunities from our
farms to our ports, touching thousands along the way.
That’s why we are doing whatever possible during the Governor’s
four-year term to see that agriculture and forestry inVirginia continues
to grow, prosper, and provide good-paying jobs, high-quality products,
revenue, and so much more to the Commonwealth, the nation, and
countries around the world.
Everywhere we go to tell the Virginia story—including on the
most recent trade mission to Japan, China, Hong Kong and South
Korea—to meet with business leaders who want to invest in our
great Commonwealth, or who want to buy our high-quality products,
Virginia agriculture and forestry are among the first things the Governor
highlights.
The importance of our agricultural and forestry exports continues
to grow for our producers and agribusinesses—as well as our overall
economy.
In 2013, Virginia once again set an all-time record by exporting
over $2.85 billion in agricultural and forestry products.
This figure is more than an eight percent increase over the previous
record set in 2012 of $2.61 billion and is a testament to the great
products Virginia has to offer and to the hard work by our growers,
agribusinesses, and exporters.
These numbers are all the more impressive when one considers
that for every $1.00 in agricultural and forestry exports from a state
such as Virginia approximately $1.27 is generated in-state from the
port all along the business chain to our family farms.
This is just one of the reasons we’ve placed a strong focus on
growing our exports—a key economic driver here at home.
It’s also one of the reasons we’ve championed opening more
international trade representative offices around the world under both
Governor McAuliffe and former Governor McDonnell.
With the bi-partisan support of both governors and the General
Assembly, we’ve opened nine new trade offices since 2010.
Virginia now has trade representatives in China, India, Russia,
Canada, Mexico, Costa Rica, and the United Kingdom.
These offices join Virginia’s long-time outpost in Hong Kong
promoting our agricultural and forestry products and facilitating
dialogue between Virginia exporters and foreign purchasers.
When considering that approximately 90% of the world’s
customers live outside the U.S., we believe that Virginia, with its
outstanding port facilities, can move even more product into the
global marketplace.
By moving from building our infrastructure to utilizing our
global trade network and examining targeted growth regions and
commodities, we will be able to facilitate new export partnerships.