Huntsman is leading trade mission to China

Several nutritional supplement companies are coming on the trip, including Provo-based Tahitian Noni Beverages and Nu Skin Enterprises, which markets personal care products.

Nu Skin has been selling its products in China since 2003 through some 160 stores and is only the second U.S. company to obtain a direct selling license in China, according to Kara Schneck, the company's senior director of corporate communications.

Last year, Chinese customers accounted for $102 million of the company's $1.2 billion in revenue, Schneck said. Now that direct selling is being introduced in Shanghai and soon, other cities, that is expected to increase.

"About 80 percent of our revenue comes from Asia," Schneck said, including $562 million last year from Japan alone. China may surpass that, she said. "Eventually, we expect that it will become one of our largest markets — or our largest market."

Travel expenses

The governor will make a quick stop at what may be the biggest Utah-based operation in China, a Huntsman Chemical Corp. plant in Shanghai. Huntsman, who sold his shares in the family company, said he's going to the plant because his father and brother will be there.

All of the trip, including the visit to the plant, is being paid for by Huntsman himself, according to Lisa Roskelley, a spokeswoman for the governor. The other participants are also responsible for their own travel expenses.

Utah Valley State College will spend about $5,000 to send Val Hale, vice president for institutional advancement and marketing, on the trip. Hale said the campus wants to attract more students from China as well as play a bigger role in the state's economic development.

"This gives us an opportunity to spend a week with some key business leaders from Utah and talk to them about what UVSC can do to be more involved in their businesses and the community as an economic force," Hale said, calling the cost of the trip "well worth it."

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