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Pillen would like to see more domestic demand for ag products amid trade uncertainty

A Midwestern governor says increasing domestic demand for ag products could help improve uncertainty in the ag economy. 

Nebraska’s Jim Pillen says he’s met with USDA Ag Secretary Brooke Rollins to express his concerns about the impact tariffs could have on agriculture exports. “If we can slow play those that could help be less disruptive when we are a net exporter, it changes the game and those are those are things that we’ve worked hard to be able to make sure everybody understands the full ramifications of what comes from it.”

He tells Brownfield growth in the biofuels industry can help reduce dependency on other countries. “So that we don’t have to rely (on) exporting, just calling it the way it is from my seat, exporting to soybeans to China, that’s a bad play. We have to process our soybeans. We have to create more value with them at home. That’s the only thing that makes sense long term.”

Pillen says two soybean crushing facilities have come online in the state within the last two years and Nebraska remains second in the US for ethanol production.

However, he says, if countries can be reliable trading partners that could present opportunities abroad. Pillen says he’s worked to expand markets for Nebraska products in Vietnam during his first trade mission as governor. “They need American soybean meal. They need Nebraska soybean meal so that they can feed their people their 100 million (people) and growing economy.”

Pillen says he’s supportive of the Trump administration’s trade policy but hopes any disruption for producers is short-lived.

Governor Jim Pillen: