Powell was very well-represented on Wyoming’s trade mission to Taiwan earlier this month.

Gov. Matt Mead was joined on the trip by Val Murray of Murraymere Farms and Forrest and Seaton Smith of GF Harvest, a gluten-free oats business. The mission saw the opening of the Wyoming–Asia Pacific Trade Office in Taipei while seeking to grow trade between Wyoming and Taiwan in agriculture, minerals, goods and tourism.

Seaton Smith described the trip as “fantastic.”

“We went over on what I refer to as a fact-finding mission because Asia is probably not well-known for its gluten-free market at this time,” Seaton said. “But neither was the United States when we started it. We have been on the leading edge before … so we thought this opportunity was a great way to share our purity protocol over in Taiwan and Taipei in conjunction with the opening of the first international trade office for Wyoming in the last 30 years.”

Wyoming’s office is located inside the Taipei World Trade Center, “and it was so exciting to see Wyoming’s presence in such an enormous commerce facility,” said Murray, who shared Seaton Smith’s excitement.

“What an incredible experience to represent the State of Wyoming and our beef industry by having the first Wyoming beef samples from Murraymere Farms going to Taiwan,” she added.

Her farm’s beef was served at an exclusive Taipei restaurant as part of the celebration.

“I was extremely proud to be representing Murraymere Farms and 104 years of family farming along with our premium Angus beef,” Murray said.

The state’s trade office hired two people who did market research with the Smiths in Taiwanese stores.

“We were able to see how they displayed it, how they labeled it, how they priced it and what their distribution systems were,” Seaton Smith said. “Then they went in and introduced us to the owners of chains in that area and manufacturers in that area and showed us everything from your upscale … Whole Foods-type all the way down to the street market.”

Taiwan’s customer service stood out to the visitors.

“It was very, very clean, very customer service-oriented and very friendly to the United States as far as opening their doors to say ‘How can we work with you?’” Seaton Smith said, adding, “I was very pleased for really my first time of international travel outside of North America.”

Murray said the members attended numerous meetings with buyers, wholesalers, importers, grocers and restaurants during the four-day trip. Wyoming’s new Asia Pacific Trade Director, Chester Chu, and manager Eva Choi scheduled the meetings in advance. The beef producers also had a tour of a privately owned beef processing plant that has been in operation for more than half a century. 

“The cleanliness and technology that were presented at this facility were top-notch, state-of-the-art and very impressive,” Murray said.

She considered the mission an unqualified success.

“The goal is for Wyoming agriculture to establish a presence in the Taiwan markets and I strongly feel that this was accomplished above and beyond by having the face-to-face interaction and relationship building with each business we met with while visiting Taipei,” Murray said. “The wonderful people in Taiwan love Wyoming and want our products.”

Murray said that Powell’s location near Yellowstone also made a good impression on the Taiwanese.

“I also felt that it was beneficial for them to visualize our geographic location when I told many people in Taiwan that we are located ... just east of Yellowstone National Park,” Murray said. “This was a fabulous boost for our Wyoming tourism, as many of them have been and/or can’t wait to come visit Yellowstone and the surrounding area and see our agricultural communities.”

Seaton Smith said he sees a “great opportunity” for Wyoming-Taiwan trade.

“To say it’s there at this point — there’s not a lot of gluten-free on the shelf,” Seaton Smith said. “But at the same time, the new focus of, really, worldwide is ‘I want to know where my food came from.’ That is one of the things that we do at GF Harvest and one of the things that Powell and Park County does fantastic because we don’t go after mass commodity items. We know where everything’s going.”

Thanks in part to the visit to the Taiwan market, “they understand that Wyoming has pure air, pure water, pure land and now pure oats,” Smith said.

The future of Wyoming-Taiwan trade looks bright to Murray.

“The entire trade program and mission to Taiwan will ultimately bring more dollars coming in from outside our state as well as allow businesses to grow, expand our contracts, increase wages and add additional employees,” Murray said. “I am going to work hard for Wyoming’s producers and agriculture trade markets to see if we can get this downward spiral turned around and hopefully start seeing profit margins go up instead of the increased losses we are seeing every year.”

Seaton Smith agrees.

“They are very focused on getting products out of Wyoming,” he said. “I give kudos to Gov. Mead in making this happen, because there was a lot of work that went into it, and Wyoming Business Council [CEO Shawn Reese] did a great job and his team of putting two great people over there that have the connections, have the expertise and the understanding of the market. It’s going to be some work, but I think they have placed the right people to help us get some traction now.”

The Wyoming delegation also included Wyoming Senate President Eli Bebout, R-Riverton, state Sen. Ogden Driskill, R-Devils Tower, Reps. David Miller, R-Riverton, and Bob Nicholas, R-Laramie, Doug Miyamoto of the Wyoming Department of Agriculture, Jim Magagna of the Wyoming Stock Growers Association and Brandon Marshall of the business council. True Ranches of Casper and Wyoming Malting Company of Pine Bluffs also joined the trip.