The Ex-Im Bank Helps Technology Maker Reach Academics Worldwide

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What do a starving graduate student, a pH data logger, and a cow have in common? For Kelly Borsum, President of  California based-DASCOR Inc., those three items are his connection to the U.S. Export-Import Bank.

DASCOR produces specialized data loggers that monitor the stomachs of animals known as ruminants. Ruminants are animals with multiple stomachs, and as Mr. Borsum likes to point out, those stomachs are essentially fermentation tanks creating alcohol, methane, and carbon dioxide.

Ten years ago, a Canadian graduate student approached Mr. Borsum to develop technology that would help monitor animal nutrition and health, as well as research the impact these animals have on global greenhouse gas levels. As the project continued, word of mouth in the ruminant studies field helped DASCOR grow.

Now DASCOR has grown to establish working relationships with researchers around the world: in the EU, and countries like Canada, Brazil, and China. About a year and a half ago, the Foundation for Research Support of the State of São Paulo in Brazil (FAPESP) began to work with DASCOR, but as a policy, FAPESP does not provide payment up front, as all of Mr. Borsum’s previous customers had done.

Mr. Borsum found himself in a predicament, he would either have to turn away a new customer or find a way to finance the transaction until he could receive the payment. The local San Diego Department of Commerce representative suggested the Ex-Im Bank, and as Mr. Borsum said, “Without both the Ex-Im Bank and the DOC, we basically would not be selling in an international market.”

DASCOR has been able to grow and assist researchers in parts of the world that Mr. Borsum could not have imagined 10 years ago. The Ex-Im Bank, he said, “has let us do things we wouldn’t have been able to otherwise, and generate over 80% of our sales from international markets.”