Iowa Secretary of Agriculture Mike Naig visited Landus Cooperative’s site in Jefferson Wednesday.

Naig was there to tour parts of the facility and learn about what Landus Cooperative does. Chief Commodity Marketing Officer Roger Fray said they typically handle 280,000 bushels of corn per day, but can hold up to 1.2 million bushels. He added that 100-percent of their product comes from local producers and the next day it is shipped to Mexico. Naig spoke about the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and said Mexico and Canada are the country’s top two trading partners and he would like to see the negotiations at the federal level come to a conclusion without it being harmful to the Iowa farmer.

“It’s a process that we’ve got to play out here. But time is definitely growing short to get something done sooner rather than later. And again, when you take into all the political considerations both in Mexico and here in the US, again we would encourage the administration to move quickly. I know they’ve got a lot on their plate right now with trade, but NAFTA is critically important to get concluded.”

Naig was appointed as the state’s Secretary of Agriculture this past March when former Secretary Bill Northey was confirmed to work in the US Department of Agriculture.