By the time most Minnesotans will be calling it a work week Friday, Minnesota Soybean Growers Association Director Bruce Schmoll will be taking over the reins of the U.S. Meat Export Federation (USMEF).

Schmoll, of Claremont, Minn., will be the next chairman of the organization, taking over at USMEF’s 40th Anniversary and Strategic Planning Conference Nov. 2-4 in Carlsbad, Calif.

Speaking by phone, Schmoll said he was honored to be taking on the position but understood there was a lot of work ahead for USMEF.

“There are so many different facets to USMEF that there is always something that needs your attention,” he said. “Our strategic plan is basically done. We’re presenting it to our members at this meeting and hopefully we’ll get it approved so we can get moving on it.”

Schmoll says one of the immediate needs for the organization is to address pork and beef exports. With higher supplies, the marketplace needs to grow.

“There has been an excess of pork and currently we are exporting about 25 percent, but we’re looking to move to 30 percent,” he said. “The same thing can be said for beef.”

Schmoll pointed to Australia as a country benefiting from having a trade agreement in place with Japan for beef.

“It’s an imbalanced market place right now,” he said. “We’re trying to be creative with the markets at this time. The industry is working hard to get TPP passed. We need to get those free trade agreements in place.”

Schmoll attended a reception on his behalf Wednesday night, but said other than that break, there has been little down time.

“That was pretty nice. I really appreciated that,” he said. “Things are scheduled so tight, it was kind of nice to be able to visit with a few people. I’ve put in six years with USMEF. After a while you get to meet a lot of people and it was nice to see some of those people and catch up.”