Busting Bales and Boards Around the World

Duratech Industries in Jamestown, ND, manufactures Haybuster hay grinding and Duratech wood grinding machines. The company exports with the help of their partner CH Trade (based in Fargo, ND), and they recently found success in both Poland and Azerbaijan with the support of the U.S. Commercial Service.

Azerbaijan – Hay Goes In, Cow Goes Moo
Nick Butze travels the world on behalf of CH Trade / Haybuster, and his mantra is “Hay Goes in Big, Comes out Small, Cow goes Moo.” Butze originally met with executives from a large Azerbaijani dairy farm at a reception when they visited originally as part of a U.S. Department of Commerce-organized Special American Business Internship Training (SABIT) delegation in the fall of 2017. A colleague of the Azerbaijani dairy farmer also came the following week to Big Iron 2017, organized by the ND Trade Office with support from the U.S. Commercial Service in Fargo, ND. The dairy farmers joined these programs at the invitation of the U.S. State Department Commercial Specialist in Azerbaijan. This large dairy farm was seeking technology to support their growing operation and they are operating the first high moisture corn grinding operation in Azerbaijan. Butze traveled to Azerbaijan to help with the sale and setup of the equipment. These multiple high quality interactions yielded multiple purchases of hay grinding equipment.

Poland – Boards Go In, Chips Come Out
Duratech also completed a Gold Key Service (GKS) through US Commercial Service in May of 2016. With a GKS, a Commercial Specialist from the overseas U.S. Commercial Service office (in this case based at the U.S. Embassy in Warsaw, Poland) identifies new overseas partners, reaches out to gauge their interest, and sets up meetings with the interested parties for the US company. The research done for Haybuster’s GKS produced four potential partners in their chosen country of Poland. A sale was made to a company that uses the equipment to make wood pellets. The Polish partner also made additional purchases from Duratech after the original sale. “What we appreciate about the U.S. Commercial Service is they are physically close to real buyers all throughout the world, and this network is priceless. They’ve helped us leverage that network both by bringing qualified buyers to North Dakota via the SABIT and Big Iron programs, and also on the other end, with services that help us connect with qualified buyers on sales trips to targeted countries. By tapping into their connectivity and business-friendly programs, we’ve met buyers we never would have met otherwise.”

For information on the US Commercial Service services, contact Heather Ranck at heather.ranck@trade.gov.