Africa Trip

Nate's new role as the strategic marketing guy for John Deere Asia also includes the subsaharan continent of Africa, where he has employees in the southern and eastern parts of this region.  As much as Nate has traveled, he had never been to Africa.  Lucky for him, he made his first trip there a few weeks ago and loved it!

He met some JD guys in Kilimanjaro, Tanzania to meet with dealers and customers in this area.  He said it looked just like he imagined, vast and beautiful, with lots of cool animals!  They even drove 4 hours into the bush (1 way) to meet with a large customer.  He said it was the most remote place he had ever been!

Most of the farming in this area is done by the Maasai tribes who still own a lot of this land.  You have maybe seen pictures of these tribespeople, many with stretched earlobes, multiple piercings and wearing colorful, almost flannel-like sarongs.
You can read more about the Maasai people here (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maasai_people), their tribal history and culture is fascinating!

Africa is definitely an emerging market for Deere, where a lot of the farming is still done by hand.  Nate's job is to help mechanize these farmers by providing low cost equipment to them, based on the regions specific needs.  There is a great opportunity here and a great chance to help these farmers produce more food, make more profit and raise more people up from poverty.  Love it!

Nate & some local JD employees

Meeting with some Maasai farmers

The village