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FRANKFORT,
Ky. — The Kentucky Department of Agriculture will welcome
28 Foreign Agriculture Service officials from 22 countries
for a tour of Kentucky agriculture landmarks this week.
They will see tobacco farms, a large central Kentucky
beef cattle operation, a bourbon distillery and a world-famous
thoroughbred auction Sept. 22-24. The tour is the second
leg of a field trip through Tennessee and Kentucky that
is part of the foreign service nationals' training on
American agriculture. The officials are citizens of
their respective countries who are employed by the U.S.
Department of Agriculture's Foreign Agriculture Service
and attached to U.S. trade offices around the world.
“We
are pleased to have this opportunity to show our guests
from around the world some of the best Kentucky agriculture
has to offer,” Agriculture Commissioner Richie Farmer
said. “We hope to establish relationships that will
help us expand exports to current trading partners such
as Mexico and open doors to trade with other countries.”
The
visitors will travel from Tennessee to Paducah on Sept.
21. The next day, they will visit the Dippin' Dots ice
cream plant in Paducah and the Ron Conyea tobacco farm
in Graves County. From there they will travel to Louisville
and tour Papa John's International headquarters the
morning of Sept. 23. Later that day the group will visit
Anderson Circle Farm in Mercer County, one of the state's
largest commercial Angus operations, and the United
Parcel Service Customs Clearance Division in Louisville.
On Sept. 24, the group will tour the Woodford Reserve
bourbon distillery in Woodford County, have lunch at
the Thoroughbred Club in Lexington, attend the Keeneland
September yearling sale, and see Kentucky Derby winner
Smarty Jones at Three Chimneys Farm near Midway.
The
delegates expected for the tour are from Ireland, Belgium,
Italy, Ghana, Israel, Russia, Ukraine, China, Japan,
the Philippines, Vietnam, New Zealand, Canada, Central
and South America and the Caribbean. They will be escorted
by FAS officials based in Washington.
The
trip is sponsored by the Kentucky Department of Agriculture
in cooperation with the Foreign Agriculture Service
and the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service.
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