From Black Angus bull semen in Butler County to Toyota Camrys built in Georgetown, Ky., trade between Tristate companies and Latin America is growing.

        Pedro's Angus Farms, which raises certified Black Angus cattle on a 250-acre farm east of Oxford, is developing plans to export bull semen for Brazilian beef cattle.

Bill and Beverly Roe of Pedrošs Angus Farm with some of the Black Angus cattle they raise. (Tony Jones photos) | ZOOM |

        The venture, which grew out of Gov. Bob Taft's South American trade mission in March last year, hopes to begin exporting to Brazil next year, said Bill Roe, who with his wife, Beverly, owns Pedro's and three Butler County steakhouses serving only certified Angus beef.

        Despite being one of the largest cattle producers in the world, only about 1 or 2 percent of Brazil's cattle are produced through artificial insemination, Mr. Roe said.

        Combining U.S. registered cattle breeds with those in Brazil could cut in half the four years it now takes to bring Brazilian cattle to maturity, generating big savings and higher profits for their farms, he said.

        “It's a huge market,” he said.

        Pedro's is planning a semen collection facility serving the entire Midwest on its farm, with Wisconsin-based Genex Cooperative Inc.

        Mr. Roe said the business could generate more than $5 million in revenue in several years.

        Mexico and South America are among the fastest growing export markets for Greater Cincinnati-area companies.

At Smurfit-Stone's Di-Na-Cal Label Group Norwood printing site (from left), Don Voorhees, A.T. Skiba and Sandra K. Zutterling look over heat transfer labels headed to Latin America. | ZOOM |

        According to the U.S. Commerce Department, exports from Greater Cincinnati companies to Mexico increased 87 percent from $181.6 million in 1993 to $339 million in 1999, the most recent data available. Exports to all of South America during the same period increased almost 250 percent, to $399 million from $114.6 million, the department says.

        Mexico and South America's share of total Cincinnati exports has increased from 11 to 13 percent over the period.

        Such Cincinnati stalwarts as Procter & Gamble Co. and GE Aircraft Engines have done business in Latin America for a long time.

        But thanks to implementation of the North American Free Trade Agreement in 1994, which eased trade with Mexico and Canada, and increased awareness of Latin America's market potential, others are joining in.

        Last year, Ohio's exports of goods to Mexico totaled $2.1 billion, almost triple what they were in 1994 when NAFTA took effect, said Kirk Merritt, deputy director of the Ohio Department of Development's international trade division.

        Last year, Mexico was the second-largest destination for Ohio manufactured goods, behind only Canada, according to the Ohio Department of Development.

        “The opportunities for Ohio companies in Latin America are strong,” Mr. Merritt said, because of NAFTA and the general move to lowering trade barriers in the region.

ENVOY TO SPEAK

Andres Bianchi, Chilean ambassador to the United States, will be the keynote speaker at the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce of Greater Cincinnati's annual dinner Thursday.     The ambassador will discuss “Building Bridges with Chile” at the dinner meeting beginning at 7 p.m. at the Westin Hotel, 21 E. Fifth St., downtown.     The chamber will also present its second Hispanic Business Leadership Award to Marc A. Chini, vice president of human resources at GE Aircraft Engines.     For information or reservations, call 579-3111, or e-mail registergccc.com by Tuesday.

        Last month, the Bush administration said it would push ahead with free-trade agreements with countries in Central America and South America, among others, as a result of Congress giving him authority to negotiate such agreements. The goal is to open all of Central America and South America to free trade agreements like NAFTA. Toyota has begun fledgling sales of its Georgetown, Ky.-built Camrys and Cambridge, Ontario-made Corollas in Mexico.

        Since launching sales in April, Toyota has sold about 1,700 cars.

        “What's driven us down there is the big market opportunity,” said Dennis C. Cuneo, senior vice president for Toyota Motor Manufacturing North America, the automaker's Erlanger-based manufacturing headquarters.

        “Mexico has a growing middle class, and Toyota is one of the last of the major automakers to enter the market.”

        A week ago, TMMNA said it was investing $140 million in a plant in Tijuana, Mexico, to build up to 20,000 small trucks for export to the United States.

        The new plant, which will initially produce Tacoma truck bodies for Toyota's California joint venture with General Motors Corp., isn't a shift of production but an addition because of rising North American sales, Mr. Cuneo said.

        Stronger sales have caused Toyota to expand production at all four of its North American assembly plants and consider adding a fifth plant.

        And Toyota has announced plans to expand its presence in Argentina as part of a global expansion of pickup truck, multipurpose vehicles and parts production.

        Production in Argentina will expand to 60,000 units annually in 2004, most of which will be exported to neighboring Brazil and other South American countries.

        Di-Na-Cal Label Group, a Norwood-based printer of heat-transfer consumer goods labels, sees increasing opportunity for its labels in Latin America.

        “We do a lot of business in Brazil and Argentina, and we're always looking to expand,” Don Voorhees, international sales manager, said.

        About 10 percent of Di-Na-Cal's $40 million in annual revenues comes from Mexico and South America.

        The company is not only looking to increase its Latin American sales but to add new product lines in the region. The unit of Smurfit-Stone Corp. is a major supplier of labels for plastic motor oil bottles, but is expanding into labels for fruit drinks and personal care items such as shampoo, Mr. Voorhees said.

        Exports represent all of Blue Ash-based Goettsch International Inc.'s sales. The small company sells corrugated box-making machinery and recycling equipment made by others all over the world.

        ”We are the largest nonmanufacturing sales organization for corrugated container equipment,” says Charles Goettsch, chief executive.

        He says a big share of the company's $25 million in revenues last year — he declines to say how much — was from Mexico.

        Mexico's NAFTA-fed exports have created big demand for corrugated shipping boxes, he said.

        Critics, primarily unions representing U.S. workers, maintain that NAFTA is exporting U.S. jobs to Mexico. But Mr. Goettsch dis- agrees.

        He says more labor-intensive manufacturing jobs are going to countries such as Taiwan, Thailand and China rather than Mexico.

        Mr. Cuneo says Toyota doesn't view Mexico as a low-wage area, adding that Mexican wages are rising faster than in the United States.

        “The wage gap between the U.S. and Mexico will disappear in another 10 years or so,” he said.

        Toyota set up a manufacturing plant in Mexico not only because it likes to produce vehicles where it sells them but also because of the productivity of Mexican factories, he said.

        “They have some very productive and flexible factories,” he said.

        The Department of Development's Mr. Merritt said trade opportunities in Latin America “are tremendous, but they require an investment” by Ohio companies.

        It's everything from learning the language to understanding cultural and legal differences, Mr. Voor- hees said. Even simple things like taking a customer to dinner.

        “In Argentina, you don't think of going to dinner before 9 or 10 o'clock in the evening,” he said.

        There are also risks.

        Argentina is struggling with a deep recession and international loan defaults, and Brazil might elect a leftist president in elections next month. But Mr. Goettsch discounts those problems.

        “The whole world is in recession. (My company) has done far better in Mexico and the rest of Latin America,” he said.

        “Americans are excellent businesspeople but poor exporters.”

        That's understandable, he said: Because the United States is the single largest economy in the world, exporting isn't a priority for most businesses.

        By contrast, in many smaller countries, exporting is an economic necessity.

        But as national economies become increasingly intertwined, trade becomes not an afterthought but a necessity, he said.

SkyTeam alliance globalizes Delta
Tristate-Latin trade is abloom
Entrepreneur 'emerges' from cancer with vision
Ah, candles: Once just light, now they're a collectors' rage
RadioShack pinning hopes of holiday sales on tiny cars
Tristate business notes
What's the Buzz?
Self-critique can keep your business alive
Working instead of whining