Webinar series aids in farm-export training

The California Agricultural Export Training Program will hold a live, online training course via Zoom beginning March 18. The weekly course will be held Thursdays, 9:30-11:30 a.m., through May 20.

The course is designed for producers, processors and marketers of California-grown or -processed specialty crops.

The export training program said the series consists of 10 modules, each intended to meet the learning needs of food and agriculture companies that are new to export or looking to enter the export business.

Sessions will be recorded and available through a dedicated classroom page for participants who missed a class or would like to review materials again.

Subjects for the training modules include: exporting California specialty crops in the new COVID-19 world; transportation and logistics; the export documentation process; export and import regulations; export financing, insurance and getting paid; legal aspects; finding the right market through market research; developing an export plan, pricing and finding buyers; cultural aspects; and the art of negotiation.

Cost is $125 for companies that are based in California, in business for at least one year, and have a qualified specialty-crop product, as defined by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, that can be exported. This includes processed food products that are made up of at least 50% of a California specialty crop, excluding water, wine, jelly and canned peaches. Cost is $599 for companies that do not meet these qualifications.

Registration includes one primary participant and up to three additional participants from the same company. To register, see tinyurl.com/calagx2021.

For more information, see www.fresnocitd.org/train or contact Celia Zamora at 559-243-7534 or celia.zamora@scccd.edu.