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A group of foreign travel and food writers, including Adele Wong of Hong Kong, left, walk to Umpqua Indian Foods in Canyonville with Judiann Buhl, the operations manager for the business that specializes in making jerky.
CANYONVILLE — The recent visitors to the Umpqua Indian Foods plant were from Italy, Belgium, Australia, China, Japan and Hong Kong.
They took notes and photos of what they saw.
Now Umpqua Indians Foods can only wait and hope that that specific group of visitors was impressed enough to write good things about their jerky products.
The visitors, eight of them, were travel and food writers from their respective countries. They toured Oregon and Washington from Oct. 25-31, visiting agricultural businesses owned by different tribes in those states. The tour was organized and hosted by the Intertribal Agriculture Council.
After visiting Umpqua Indian Foods that is owned by the Cow Creek Band of Umpqua Tribe of Indians and is a member of the IAC, the writers traveled west to view the cranberry bogs of the Coquille Indians to complete the tour.
“There are 500 tribes throughout the U.S. and the majority have some type of agriculture,” said Nathan Notah, program director for the IAC. “The primary mission of the tour is to get the word out on a worldwise basis that Native Americans still exist and to let people know we have products for sale. We want to help locate markets, specific markets, distributors, buyers.”
Notah said there are about 20 tribes that have the capability of exporting their products overseas when willing markets are found. He noted that the Red Lake Nation in Minnesota produces wild rice, the Sioux Nation of South Dakota makes an energy bar from bison meat and cranberries, and the Isleta Pueblo Indians of New Mexico grow anasazi beans, a nutrious, sweet tasting vegetable.
“This tour can help expedite the process,” he said of finding foreign markets and buyers for those products and the Umpqua jerky. “It's working, absolutely. It's making an impact, making it known we have food products available and they're for sale.”
He explained this is the eighth year the IAC has organized a tour of writers, and this was the first tour to the Pacific Northwest.
Back home those writers will file stories for such publications as La Repubblica, a daily newspaper in Rome with 600,000 readers, Betty's Kitchen in Beijing, China, that has a monthly circulation of 395,000 and The Standard/The Peak in Hong Kong that has a daily circulation of 240,000.
“This will help create publicity for Native American food producers,” said Kernin Steinhauer, the director of organizational development and marketing for the Umpqua Indian Development Corp. “We hope it'll build an appreciation for Native American foods on the international level. Umpqua Foods is looking into exporting its products out of the country.”
Steinhauer added that he hopes some of the stories will also encourage tourists from those countries to visit Douglas County.
“When the writers write about their experience here, hopefully it'll get the Umpqua area some visibility as well as market opportunities,” he said.
• You can reach Features editor Craig Reed at 957-4210 or by e-mail at creed@nrtoday.com.
They took notes and photos of what they saw.
Now Umpqua Indians Foods can only wait and hope that that specific group of visitors was impressed enough to write good things about their jerky products.
The visitors, eight of them, were travel and food writers from their respective countries. They toured Oregon and Washington from Oct. 25-31, visiting agricultural businesses owned by different tribes in those states. The tour was organized and hosted by the Intertribal Agriculture Council.
After visiting Umpqua Indian Foods that is owned by the Cow Creek Band of Umpqua Tribe of Indians and is a member of the IAC, the writers traveled west to view the cranberry bogs of the Coquille Indians to complete the tour.
“There are 500 tribes throughout the U.S. and the majority have some type of agriculture,” said Nathan Notah, program director for the IAC. “The primary mission of the tour is to get the word out on a worldwise basis that Native Americans still exist and to let people know we have products for sale. We want to help locate markets, specific markets, distributors, buyers.”
Notah said there are about 20 tribes that have the capability of exporting their products overseas when willing markets are found. He noted that the Red Lake Nation in Minnesota produces wild rice, the Sioux Nation of South Dakota makes an energy bar from bison meat and cranberries, and the Isleta Pueblo Indians of New Mexico grow anasazi beans, a nutrious, sweet tasting vegetable.
“This tour can help expedite the process,” he said of finding foreign markets and buyers for those products and the Umpqua jerky. “It's working, absolutely. It's making an impact, making it known we have food products available and they're for sale.”
He explained this is the eighth year the IAC has organized a tour of writers, and this was the first tour to the Pacific Northwest.
Back home those writers will file stories for such publications as La Repubblica, a daily newspaper in Rome with 600,000 readers, Betty's Kitchen in Beijing, China, that has a monthly circulation of 395,000 and The Standard/The Peak in Hong Kong that has a daily circulation of 240,000.
“This will help create publicity for Native American food producers,” said Kernin Steinhauer, the director of organizational development and marketing for the Umpqua Indian Development Corp. “We hope it'll build an appreciation for Native American foods on the international level. Umpqua Foods is looking into exporting its products out of the country.”
Steinhauer added that he hopes some of the stories will also encourage tourists from those countries to visit Douglas County.
“When the writers write about their experience here, hopefully it'll get the Umpqua area some visibility as well as market opportunities,” he said.
• You can reach Features editor Craig Reed at 957-4210 or by e-mail at creed@nrtoday.com.
