Africa Ag Outreach Bears High Yields in Botswana

Titan Outlet, based in Glyndon, MN, markets agricultural equipment all over the world for Titan Machinery, based in West Fargo, ND. Titan Machinery is the world’s largest dealer of Case New Holland farm equipment. Africa is often considered the last frontier for commercial ag, with vast tracts of unfarmed land and a need for machinery, seeds and agronomic know-how. With this in mind, the U.S. Commercial Service and companies like Titan Machinery have been making a concerted effort to bring U.S. agricultural machinery and know-how to Africa since 2009. 

The earliest efforts to get U.S. ag equipment into Africa centered around the Nampo ag show in South Africa, where the U.S. Commercial Service has organized a USA Pavilion every year since 2010, where Titan has participated for many of those years. From that effort, many contacts were made and many flight hours were logged. One of the programs that emerged from this effort was a U.S. Trade and Development Agency (USTDA) sponsored Reverse Trade Mission, where on several occasions African ag professionals visited the Red River Valley, with significant support from the U.S. Commercial Service in Fargo, ND.  

Some of the delegation members in the USTDA delegations have remained in touch with U.S. companies, and recently purchased equipment from several companies, including a Steiger Quad Trac from Titan. These visitors have also visited the USA Pavilion at Nampo, and remained in close contact with many of the people they met on their first USTDA visit to the USA in 2011.

In addition to the Africa-focused programming, Titan Outlet has been an enthusiastic participant in the export preparedness programming supported by the U.S. Commercial Service, including export trainings and the ExporTech program. 

“The North Dakota U.S. Commercial Service office has been one of the MAIN factors into securing business from Botswana and numerous other Africa states for us,” said Don Aberle, Store Manager for Titan Outlet. “The Gold Key Service, the commitment to helping US Companies gain international sales, the willingness to work with other agencies and just the pure passion of the North Dakota U.S. Commercial office has enabled us to make investments into personnel and marketing activities, because we know we have a source in the ND U.S. Commercial Service Team that will help us gain more business.”

For more information on how the Commercial Service can help your business export, contact Heather Ranck at Heather.Ranck@trade.gov or visit www.export.gov/NorthDakota.