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Going Global: Alfalfa for Everyone

The Scenario:

One of your friends plans to return to the family alfalfa farm in central California after college.  You don’t know much about alfalfa (other than the sprouts on your salad) but he tells you that alfalfa is used around the world, primarily as feed for high-producing dairy cows, because of its high protein content and highly digestible fiber, and secondarily for beef cattle, horses, sheep, and goats.  Your friend has come up with the idea to grow his family business by exporting a compressed form of alfalfa (alfalfa pellets) to be used as high-quality animal feed.  The compressed tablets are lighter, take up less storage space and have a longer “shelf life” than alfalfa hay. He has researched a little and knows that the greatest demand for his product are in China, Japan, Taiwan, Korea and UAE.  That is about as far as he has gotten because although he knows a great deal about alfalfa, he knows next to nothing about doing business outside of the United States. He finds out that you are studying international business and has asked you for guidance.  You explain to him that each market has its own “quirks” but that you can give him an idea of a few of the issues he will have to deal with when taking his business global.

The Assignment: 

1. Select ONE of the 5 countries your friend has already identified as potential markets: China, Japan, Taiwan, Korea and UAE.
2. Select TWO to THREE issues that are specific to that country that your friend may encounter when trying to export his pellets to that particular country. For assistance, you can consult the “A Basic Guide to Exporting” series of webinars found on the globalEDGE website (http://globaledge.msu.edu). A link to this and other useful resources is located in your course.
3. Prepare a summary of your findings. The summary should give your friend a clear understanding of things to “be on the look out for” as he begins to select the market he will enter.

Instructions:

1. You will submit a written assignment, that is a minimum of 2 pages, maximum of 3 pages in length.  Your assignment must follow the “Guidelines for Written Assignments.” For additional criteria, please refer to the guidelines provided by your instructor.
2. Information on how your assignment will be graded is contained in the “Written Assignment Grading Rubric.”
3. Please include the URL and/or link to all resources you use for this assignment. You do not need “in line” citations, but at the end of the paper please provide a list of what you used. This DOES NOT count toward your overall required length.