Luz Duarte

I transitioned from international business consulting in the hospitality industry to commodities trading, seeking a new challenge while staying in the food sector. As a business partner at Agra Wilson in the Dominican Republic, I manage international importing and exporting of essential commodities including corn, sugar, oil, meat, chicken, rice, and flour. My business partner is the biggest producer of corn and soybean in Iowa with his own farm, which is how our company got its name. Our main business operates out of the Dominican Republic, and we focus heavily on exporting to the Haitian market, which has a huge need and is very poor. My typical week involves working from my home office in Virginia Saturday through Tuesday, then traveling Wednesday through Friday to the Dominican Republic, Panama, or Miami, depending on where my clients are. I serve as the liaison between all our clients and my business partner, and we make it a priority to meet everyone in person before doing any business with them. For our contracts, we conduct three to four meetings a day when out of the country to maximize our time. We visit manufacturers, exporters, ships, and ports to ensure everything is legitimate because there's a lot of scam in this business. We 100% insure anything we export, and anything that happens to it is on us, not the person selling it to us, so we want to make sure things are correct. When I return home, I handle the structure of contracts and follow up with clients on anything that's pending.