FARGO, N.D. (AP) — Howard Dahl is making another trip to the former Soviet Union this month to pitch his North Dakota-made farm machinery — his 50th such sojourn since the country's collapse in 1991.
The daylong flights from Fargo, the language, political and economic barriers have all been worth it, said Dahl, president of Amity Technology LLC, billed as the world's largest manufacturer of sugar beet harvesting equipment.
"It's the best decision we've ever made," he said from his factory in Fargo.
Since the breakup of the Soviet Union, Dahl's business has had more than $150 million in sales to Kazakhstan, Russia, Ukraine and Azerbaijan, including $50 million in the last two years, he said.
The appetite for American farm machinery products is on the rise.
Russia imported $281 million in American farm machinery products through June 2007, a 112 percent increase from the previous year, according to the Association of Equipment Manufacturers, a West Allis, Wis.-based machinery trade group. Ukraine had $142 million in American-made machinery purchases through the first half of 2007, a 113 percent increase over the previous year, the group said.
The North Dakota Trade Office said state farm machinery exports to Kazakhstan, Russia and Ukraine have risen from $1.2 million in 2001 to $81 million in 2006. Sales for the first nine months of 2007 totaled $98.9 million, the trade office said.
"In the last four years, we've grown 30 percent a year, due largely to the market there," Dahl said, adding that half the 270 jobs at his three North Dakota factories depend on the sales to the former Soviet Union states.
