SHEFFIELD | At a meeting with Chinese officials Tuesday in Des Moines, Steve Sukup, the chief financial officer at Sukup Manufacturing in Sheffield, distributed business cards printed with English and Chinese characters.
The company is looking for opportunities to sell its grain bins and dryers in China.
"They have been one of the U.S.'s largest importers, so we are all looking for opportunities to ship some of our products back to China," Sukup said.
Sukup and representatives from other Iowa businesses met with a delegation from China's Hebei province, which is on a visit to Iowa.
On Tuesday Iowa companies and organizations signed 20 cooperative trade agreements with counterparts from Hebei.
Sukup wasn't one of the companies that were part of those agreements, but officials from Sukup are interested in pursuing one.
"We've talked about them (China) as an emerging nation for 30 years, but now their middle class is for real, and they're ready to buy things," Sukup said.
The ag industry in particular has great opportunities in China now, according to Sukup.
Iowa exported $751 million worth of products to China last year, including machinery, vehicles, processed meat, cereal and animal feed.
Sukup met a few of the officials in the Chinese delegation when Xi Jinping, who is now president of China, was part of a trade mission to the United States in 1985.
During that trip the delegation toured Sukup Manufacturing and had tea at the farm of Steve and Vicki Sukup.
Steve Sukup said one of the members of the current delegation to Iowa grew very animated when he mentioned the visit to Sheffield all those years ago. He told Sukup he still remembers getting Sukup hats and jackets during the visit.
Sukup President Charles Sukup and representatives from other Iowa businesses, associations and educational institutions went to China in April on a trade mission led by Iowa Gov. Terry Branstad.
Branstad signed an agreement in 1983 establishing the sister state relationship between Iowa and the Hebei province.
Charles Sukup said based on the amount of corn he saw piled on the ground in China, there appears to be potential for grain bid sales.
He also said with the fast-growing middle class and greater appetite among the Chinese for meat, there is a growing need for grain-handling and storage equipment.
"In our meetings with Chinese officials it was quite an attention-getter to say that the current president of China had toured our plant many years ago," he said.
