05/02/06 Promoting Washington "down under"

Washington Ag May 2, 2006 Washington Governor Chris Gregoire is leading a trade mission to Australia and New Zealand next week. State Ag Director Valoria Loveland will also be on the mission. Loveland: "Our tree fruit industry has some markets down there and we are doing a cherry promotion in Australia. They just introduced cherries down there and that market is growing for them. So the governor and I will be promoting at one of their stories, cherries, to help them understand the product." Cattle industry representatives are also going and Loveland says they will be looking into Australia's animal ID system. Loveland: "And we are going to look at their national animal identification system on both cattle and sheep. Talk to some ranchers and not just government people. How it works? Who pays for it? How effective is it? Even though we do not yet have a required national animal identification system the indication from the industry here is we need to get with it, get some kind of system up for us that will fit into an eventual national system. So I am glad they are going with us and we have made arrangements to go out and work on the ground and work directly with someone who is using the system" I'm Bob Hoff.