Latta tours local firms, hears concerns

DAVE MOSIER/independent editor

U.S. Representative Bob Latta was in Van Wert on Tuesday to tour two local businesses and also hear concerns from the local business community.

Latta first toured National Door & Trim in Vision Park and then drove down the street to Advanced Biological Marketing (ABM), a globally directed agribusiness that is getting ready to construct a new facility in Vision Park.

ABM CEO Dan Custis shared some information on the company, which develops agricultural “biologicals” that increase crop yields and improve farm productivity.

In addition to North America and Europe, Custis said ABM’s products are currently being sold in all of Southeast Asia (including Vietnam), five Central American countries, several southern African and South American countries, as well as the Ukraine.

“We’re a little worried about that,” Custis said of the current Ukraine situation.

The company uses distributors to market its products — which ABM developed in conjunction with Cornell University scientists — throughout the world. Since its founding in 2000, ABM has received more than $3.5 million in outside funding, including three grants from the USDA.

While the company’s domestic business is still the largest, Custis noted, adding that ABM works with most of the major seed companies, including Monsanto and Pioneer, he also predicted that the international market would catch up quickly because of the quality of ABM’s products.

Custis said he was especially interested in Africa — especially the central and southern portions of the continent.

“I’ve got a passion for Africa,” Custis said. “Not that people aren’t starving in other parts of the world, but Africa poses a real challenge, not just to us, but to Europe.”

In addition to showing Latta plans for ABM’s 78,000-square-foot production/office facility to be built in Vision Park over the next two years, Custis also sought some assistance from the congressman to cut some red tape at the Food and Drug Administration regarding a food tracking system the company has developed.

The system uses non-toxic, non-allergenic markers to track food from a farmer’s field to a consumer’s table. Custis said the food tracking system was in the final stage of approval by the U.S. Department of Agriculture when the new Farm Bill was passed by Congress. Unfortunately, that legislation transferred the approval process for the system from the USDA to the FDA.

Latta, who is on the House Agricultural Committee, said he would do what he could to help move the project forward, but

“If you can help speed up that process I would greatly appreciate it,” Custis told Latta, noting that ABM is also working with a number of seed companies and other agribusiness firms to develop an implementation plan for the new system.

Latta has often spoke of the excessive number of regulations U.S. companies must deal with, and cited ABM’s problem with the FDA as just one of trillions of dollars, as well as valuable time, wasted dealing with federal regulations.

On Thursday, Latta will tour four agribusinesses in the Fifth District with Ohio Agriculture Director David Daniels.