Melanie Grand, an assistant professor in the hospitality and restaurant administration department at Missouri State University, recently hosted a group from Turkey who were participants in the Cochran Fellowship Program. The Cochran Program provides U.S.-based agricultural training opportunities for senior and mid-level specialists and administrators from public and private sectors who are concerned with agricultural trade, agribusiness development, management, policy and marketing.
While in Springfield, the fellows toured Hy-Vee, Reinhart Foods, Big Cedar Lodge, Missouri State University, College of the Ozarks and urban farms. Grand also led a session on new product development and repurposing.
“This was a fabulous opportunity to demonstrate best practices in the food distribution systems and build better working relations with international importers,” said Grand.
The fellows included Meliha Atalaysun, agricultural marketing assistant for the U.S. Department of Agriculture at the U.S. Consulate in Istanbul; Onur Ozel, a partner and import manager for Demak Food Import and Distribution Company; Cem Bensason, board member at Dolfin Food Company; Beri Benarolya, the managing partner of Foody Food Company; and Onder Bilen, owner and general manager of Ekol Food Company. Grand hosted a similar group from Armenia last year.
The Cochran Fellowship Program has trained over 13,500 fellows from 121 countries around the world since its inception in 1984. Some of the program’s goals include increasing selected countries’ integration into global agricultural markets, building the capacity of selected countries’ for a sustainable and competitive agricultural sector, increasing access for U.S. agricultural products in selected countries, and improving the overall perception of the United States for national security purposes.