North Dakota's longest running economic development conference opened at the Bismarck Civic Center on Wednesday, continuing through today with a variety of classes and exhibits aimed at developing North Dakotans' entrepreneurial spirit.

Marketplace for Entrepreneurs opened with a welcome from co-sponsors Sen. Kent Conrad, D-N.D., and Agriculture Commissioner Roger Johnson. Wednesday's focus was identity preservation and its importance to North Dakota's agricultural producers who will have to compete on a global market.

"Those able to IP find the value of their product goes up," Conrad said. "In Illinois they were selling soybeans for $5 a bushel, when they got involved in IP they were able to sell them for $15 a bushel."

IP starts with the actual seeding of the crop all the way to the end user. Buyers know where the product comes from, who produces it, transports it - everything there is to need to know. There is no mystery in what is being bought and sold which is what today's consumers demand. "They want to know if it's herbicide free, pesticide free and are willing to pay premium prices to have these products," Conrad said.

A series of presentations focused on identity preservation and the new transmodal transportation facility being built by the city of Bismarck, the Northern Plains Commerce Centre.

"This conference specifically focuses on transportation and help us all figure out how to take advantage of the facility," Johnson said. "Thirty-seven percent of the cost of all grain exports is transportation. Container traffic for moving IP in the last 20 years has increased 250 percent on the East Coast and 450 percent on the west coast."

Johnson provided two examples where IP would be important to state producers. He reported the Human Nutrition Center in Grand Forks is researching a "Dakota Diet" which is composed of commodities that have unique attributes which have shown they are healthier than if grown elsewhere. Another is the increased use of flax. "Commonly a first crop in newly planted soil, we're now finding it has great health benefits and there is a group of people out there grinding it up and putting it in their orange juice for breakfast."

Paul Stevenson, a representative of the American Institute of Baking, travels the world discussing the IP process, particularly in Canada and the United Kingdom. The European Union claims the United States can't IP effectively, Stevenson said, but he feels differently. "I'm here to tell you we can, from farm to end user."

"Current trends affecting IP include the food-feed industry moving from supply driven to customer driven; food security with traceability; premium prices paid for IP products; and country of origin labeling," Steven said. "Food security is a big driver as the world changes."

Jerry Nagel, president of Northern Great Plains Inc., explained how governments, food brokers, manufacturers and grocers are demanding to know about the commodities they sell.

Kadrmas Lee and Jackson's Brian Eiseman gave an overview of Bismarck's Northern Plains Commerce Centre which is expected to be in operation by next fall. It evolved from a container routing and shipping facility to a transloading facility using all modes of transportation to deliver products from the producer to the market.

KLJ's Niles Hushka said the easy part of creating NPCC was the infrastructure. "What will make this happen are large cultural changes, educational changes and logistics. We'll have the infrastructure in place so our emphasis now has to be on logistics and educating shippers in the region on how they can use the center."

(Reach reporter Gordon Weixel at 250-8255 or gordon.weixel@bismarcktribune.com.)