Walmart representatives went to the Pro Farmer Midwest Crop Tour on Aug. 18-21 to form bonds with farmers and to develop strategies to improve their products, Reuters reports.
The "World's largest public corporation" joined the Pro Farmer Midwest Crop Tour showing an increasing interest in food supplies and production.
The tour's main objective was to provide the state and regional agricultural sectors with accurate information about expected corn and soybean yields during harvest seasons.
These annual tours are important to gather data to better understand the crop market on a first-hand basis.
Aside from that, the tours have been increasing in popularity since it is a way to connect those who live far from the field to form solid relationships with crop growers themselves and to earn trust and recognition from clients and suppliers.
The Pro Farmer Midwest Crop Tour included 120 people this year, reportedly almost 10 times the amount of people who joined during the first year of the tour, according to Ohio's Country Journal.
It spans different states in the U.S., passing through more than 1,300 fields.
Meanwhile, Walmart is looking for ways to help their patrons save money by going to the tour, as the information gathered from the tour will help the company in making decisions about their retail products.
Tim Robinson, Walmart's director of dry grocery joined in the tour. In a statement regarding the motive of Walmart for joining the tour, "We are looking for ways to better understand our business. We attend farm tours to learn more about crops so we can make smart buying decisions in our efforts to pass on savings to our customers," the director said in a statement in Reuters.
According to the report, Robinson met and talked with a farmer in Ford County, Illinois who produced corn crops for Frito-Lay, whose products are distributed in Walmart stores.
The director discovered that large corn yields have consequently lowered the costs of grain for the retail company's suppliers.
