International wood buyers tour Wisconsin lumber mills

Jun 28, 2023

Speaking up over the sound of wood boards being taken off of the conveyor belt and stacked into piles, Kretz Lumber Vice President Todd Breitenfeldt talks about the stack of wood in front of him.

"This is red oak. This is what we were running on the conveyor over there," said Breitenfeldt.

He's explaining this to a group of eight international wood and forest products buyers.

They’ve come to Wisconsin from India, Mexico, Taiwan, and Thailand.

"We enjoy giving tours. We want people to understand what we do here, the sustainable resources that we have with the forests out there and how we manage them. We take a lot of pride in the forestry services that we offer," said Breitenfeldt.

This was the group's third stop of the day and one of 11 stops during the four days they’re in Wisconsin.

The Forestry Products Inbound Buyer Mission was organized by the Wisconsin Department of Agriculture, Trade, and Consumer Protection [DATCP]. The mission was funded by the Wisconsin Initiative for Agricultural Exports

Jennifer Lu is the economic development consultant of the international agribusiness center for DATCP. She says it's the first time the state has done an inbound buyer mission like this.

"Having the buyers here, throughout the state, is the opportunity for the buyers to touch and feel and see firsthand what we have to offer," said Lu.

The buyers were impressed by what lumber mills like Kretz can offer.

Irma Ballesteros-Parsons is the Executive Director of the National Association of Importers of Forest Products.

The group represents 85% of the imports that come to Mexico.

She says her buyers are interested in hardwoods from the Wisconsin region.

"It has been very productive, very interesting. The quality of the products have been outstanding in all the sawmills we have visited," said Ballesteros-Parsons

Jirawat Tangkijngamewong is the President of the Thai Furniture Association.

He was particularly impressed with the Menominee Tribal Enterprises Sawmill.

"They talk about spirit, they talk about here and there and then also chop wood and sell wood to us. This wood lot would be a bit more spiritual than the other wood lots. I texted my friend, ‘The local Native [Americans] have got their sawmill and very good sawmill practices,’" he said.

In 2019, almost $1.3 billion of forestry commodities were exported to foreign countries according to a DNR report on the ‘Economic Contribution Of Forest Products Industry To Wisconsin Economy.’

Lu hopes that these buyers can work with Wisconsin's lumber mills to help grow those exports.

"These are fast-growing countries for Wisconsin Forestry products. There are a lot of opportunities out there. However, they don't know much about Wisconsin. People from our trip mission here were saying, from India, even from Mexico, said, ‘We don't know much about Wisconsin. It's a hidden treasure.’ After the tour," said Lu.

Kretz started getting more aggressive about international sales in 2010.

Breitenfeldt estimates that about 20% of Kretz Lumber's business is international exports, with most of it going to China and parts of Europe.

He looks forward to expanding it in the future.

"That's always part of the game. We always like to diversify," said Breitenfeldt.