The "Other" North Dakota Industry -- March 24, 2015

A big "thank you" to a reader for sending me this; ChinaDaily is reporting:

Before the Bakken shale formation transformed North Dakota into an energy giant, the state was mostly known as a provider of soybeans, corn and other crops. North Dakota remains an agriculture powerhouse and during the week of March 30 a delegation will travel to Qingdao in Shandong province in China to showcase the state's agricultural commodities and food products.

The 2015 China - North Dakota Better for You Food Ingredients event is organized by the North Dakota Trade Office, Northern Crops Institute and the North Dakota Department of Agriculture.

Dean Gorder, executive director of the trade office, said this will be the third time he has led a delegation of mainly small and medium-sized family-owned North Dakota companies to China.

"North Dakota is a significant producer of specialty crops like flax, sunflowers and lentils," he told China Daily in an interview. "Part of our mission is to demonstrate how the Chinese can incorporate these crops into their food. They are just starting to learn about them."

To accomplish that, Gorder said specialists from the Northern Crops Institute (a collaborative effort among Minnesota, Montana, and North and South Dakota to support the promotion of crops grown in the four states) will give presentations to Chinese buyers and other officials representing food manufacturers in the mainland. "They will actually prepare dishes for them made with the North Dakota ingredients so they can experience the taste and nutrition they can bring to a meal," he said. 

I was hoping they would have also mentioned chickpeas.