107 



pies — which has made our agriculturahsts very productive in this 

 area. 



Are they trained and are they ready to take on that type of tech- 

 nology? 



Mr. Evans. I defer to my colleague. 



Mr. Gashler. I was very impressed with the technology training 

 and background these people have. That was one of the things that 

 surprised me on my first trip to the former Soviet Union. I found 

 that many of the private farmers, especially the ones who had the 

 knowledge, the background, were the leaders in the former state 

 farms. 



One that I worked with is a veterinarian, his wife is also a vet- 

 erinarian. He was a very intelligent man, a leader among the peo- 

 ple, he had developed a fox farm, a no-cost fox farm that generates 

 a good profit. 



Now, this guy is a mover. He goes to the state farm where he 

 was formerly employed, picks up the dead animals, and feeds them 

 to his fox. He has 300 female fox, and is selling the fox for $60 to 

 $90 apiece. He is making it happen, a very intelligent man. I was 

 impressed with him. 



I was impressed with many more of the people, and the knowl- 

 edge they have. 



Mr. Allard. Thank you. It seems to me about a year ago or 9 

 months or so, at least last year, I was involved in a discussion 

 group, and I can't recall whether it was here in a formal setting 

 in the Congress or where, but the issue was brought up that there 

 are areas of the Soviet Union where there are surpluses. The prob- 

 lem is getting it to the urban areas. 



In your visits there, have you found that to be true? Do we have 

 pockets where there are surpluses of agricultural commodities? 



Mr. Evans. I don't think there is any question about it. I mean, 

 the distribution and the storage problems are at the heart of the 

 food problems of the former Soviet Union, and to a considerable ex- 

 tent, the great markets that we had for several years were reflec- 

 tions of that. It was simpler and cheaper and more of a solvable 

 problem to buy the stuff here than it was to go to Moscow and St. 

 Petersburg than to get it collected from the farms and organized 

 and through all of the channels to those people. 



So it is very much a part of the problem and this is something 

 that they are going to have to work on and that we can help them 

 on, the distribution processing marketing side. We are trying to do 

 that. 



Mr. Allard. Is it your feeling that is an area where we can be 

 most helpful? How would you rate it in priorities in being able to 

 help? 



Mr. Evans. I think one of the most important, but you have to 

 understand how we work. We go into an area and find a group of 

 farmers and say, hey, what are you interested in, what are your 

 goals, what would you like to do, and we don't try to force goals 

 on them. Very often it is this marketing and distribution, they rec- 

 ognize it is a need, and they say, we would like some help on how 

 we form a marketing cooperative along the patterns that you have 

 in the United States. But this is a common request. 



